Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have long wondered if anyone feeds hot peppers to their tortoises. My wife and I have grown all kinds of them over the years and many have some nice bright red colors that I bet the tortoises would find appealing.
Of course, my fear is that they might burn their guts out (as the things do to me)in the process.
Any experiences?

Hi Carl. I have fed sweet red peppers (and also the green and yellow peppers) to some of my tortoises over the years with no ill effects. Somewhere I recall reading that peppers were bad for tortoises, but it hasn't hurt any of mine. Adding the "hot" dimension is an unknown to me, as I won't eat them myself, so rarely have any around the place. That being said, I do know that a Galapagos Toroise at one of the major zoos was hand fed an onion which he mistook at first for the peeled apple which he had been eating from the same hand immediately prior to that, and did NOT like it, spitting out the remnants of his first bite or two, then refusing more.

It has always been my opinion that tortoises won't eat anything really bad for them, and I let mine sample anything and everything they want (right or wrong, that's what I have always done). Based on the onion experiment mentioned above, I would say give hot peppers a try with just one tortoise first, perhaps one which is not overly valuable to you. Initially, see if it eats more than just one bite. If it does seem to like it and devours the hot pepper, then observe the animal for about 3 days to see if any ill effects are evident. If not, then I would let them all eat hot peppers at will.

One final note which may be of interest to some readers. When I lived in CT, I was once visited by Rene Honegger, noted reptile curator from the Zurich (Switzerland) Zoo. When he saw that I was keeping my tortoises in a pen containing a perennial garden planted with daffodils, iris, and day lilies (among other things), he almost had a coronary. He advised me that I should immediately separate the tortoises and those plants because the plants had poisonous parts which would kill the tortoises if ingested. I thanked him for this advice, but did not follow it, as I had kept them the same way for years with no ill effects. In fairness to Rene, I will add that apparently some tortoises (of the same species as mine, no less) in a European zoo had died after eating daffodils. Whether it was the leaves, bulbs, or flowers, which were eaten I don't know as I never saw the report. I do know I never had any troubles in over ten years of keeping the animals in the pen with that garden but cannot offer any explanation. It may be that the plants in the European zoo had some extrinsic poison on them and the tortoises died not from poison within the plants, but from poison ON the plants.

BZ

Thanks Bill.
I once offered a tortoise a periwinkle (Vinca sp.) flower that it bit and then immediately spat out. The tortoise then spent the next few minutes trying to wipe it's face and dislodge any remaining bits of that flower. I learned later that they were toxic.
I figured that they might sample the hot peppers and eat them if they liked them but I have become very cautious about what I feed them.
Similar to you past experiences, I remember one of the giant tortoises at Bill Haast's place in Miami being fed an oyster plant by some tourist who picked it from the surrounding landscaping. The big tortoise ate it like it was lettuce. I figured that it would be good to feed my tortoises but I read that they were toxic to dogs and cats so I never tried them.
That must have been neat to have Rene Honegger at your house! That would be like me having...Bill Zovickian at my house.

Hey, Carl. Thanks for those kind words. I don't know if I am in that league, or have just been around a long while!

Seriously, please do let us know what you decide to do regarding feeding the hot peppers and how the tortoises like them should you decide to let them try eating any.

Happy New Year to all,

Bill Z

when my redfoot eats something he doesn't like, he squints his eyes, opens his mouth, and wags his head from side to side. wiping his face with his arms is also a possibility.

we call it his "blackberry face" because that was the first thing he ate that he disliked, and it cracked us up to see him carry on like that.

if other torts are anything like junior, they don't eat a THING they don't like, that's for sure...