Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey, I got my first tortoise last month, a four month old red foot, and I was looking for different things to add some variety to his diet and found a site that said they planted flowers in their torts outdoor yard for food. Out of the flowers listed, the only two I could find were African violets and pansies. I just wanted to make sure these are alright for my tort to eat before I gave him any. And if so, can they eat the flowers and the leaves, or the flowers? And how can I wash any pesticide the garden center probably put on them? Thanks very much!
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I've seen pansies on lists, but I don't think I've ever seen African violets on the edible lists; certainly wild violets & violas, but not African. See
www.russiantortoise.org
for edible landscaping.
Hostas are good plants, edible and easy to grow.
Pesticides may be internalized so no way to wash off. Many grow plants for up to 6 months or a year before providing them to torts.
See also,
www.redfoottortoise.com
New site but being updated.

Hibiscus are great too!

Dandelion flowers are an all time favorite, along with clover (any color), althea (rose of sharon) & day lilies.

African violets (saintpaulia) are toxic to tortoises - ordinary garden violets (violaceae) are fine.

Other flowers I feed are pansy, nasturtium, lavatera, hibiscus, dandelion (of course), sow thistle, abutilon, evening primrose (a particular favourite), campanula, and field bindweed flowers occasionally.

Nina

I guess I didn't think there where different kinds of violets. We have a hibiscus plant, so I can feed him that, and can they eat all parts of the clover?
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People Who Say Money Can't Buy You Happiness Obviously Don't Know Where To Buy A Herp

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I think all parts of the clover are fine. You have to be really careful with common names of plants as the same name is often used for different species. For example: marigold. The marigold often called pot marigold that is a calendula is fine for tortoises, but the marigold often called African marigold (tagetes) is toxic. Field bindweed (convolvulus arvensis) is fine for torts but the black bindweed is polygonium convolvulus and is toxic. There are countless examples like that, so you're always best sticking to Latin names.

Nina