personally I would ditch the romaine or make it a very insignificant part of his diet. Dandelion greens are a very good green and I seem to recall they were more common in texas than they are here in Fl.. In spite of the warnings about cruciferous vegetables most of us who do herbivorous reptiles here in fl. use collard and mustard greens quite extensively with no problem at all. One advantage you have living in Texas over us here in Fl. is you have a much larger diversity of wild grasses than we do here in Fl.. Try letting him roam in an area of your yard that has natural grasses (not the st. augustine grass or "carpet grass" as it is often called in Tx.). One thing I have found here in Fl. is that the gopher tortoises seem to enjoy the grass burr (or stickers as they are called in Tx.) producing grass. Something evident since the largest concentrations of it here seem to be around their burrows. I mention that since gophers and russians are both grassland type tortoises that primarily consume grasses in the wild. Spineless cactus pads are good as well and ulike me you can actually still grow them well since Tx. has not yet been invaded by the dreaded pricly pear moth. The pellets are good to keep as part of his diet, however personally I prefer actual fruits greens and vegetables. Someone else mentioned keeping cuttlebones in with him that seems to help with the beak thing.

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