Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have been wanting to get a Russian tortiose. But thier diet requirments confuse me. I have read not to rely on store bought greens.but living in Ohio what else would I do in the winter months. We have horses that eat a mixtuire of hay alfalfa,grass,clover. Is this good for them . would other russian tort owners tell me what they feed so I can see if I would be able to provide for one. It also stated rose flowers etc but how do you know they weren't grown with pestisides? Thank You .

www.russiantortoise.net is a good general source. Also there is a book on russians by EJ Pirog.

The key to the diet is variety. If you are going to feed them store greens, don't just feed them green leaf lettuce, for example. Get collards, and mustard greens and endive, etc. Find some cactus pads (cut off the spines). I have not found russians to be big on eating hay, but if you chop it up finely and mix it in with the greens, they will consume some of it. And I mean fine - like confetti.

Flowers - I wouldn't get flowers from the nursery for food. They love dandelion and clover flowers, and if you can find a pesticide free hibiscus plant that would be great.

As the seasons change you'll find more diet options. Clover, dandelion, plantain (Plantago species), and more can be found in the back yard.

The only problem I find with feeding store greens is the lack of dietary fiber. Tortoises that eat nothing but greens often have runny stools. Hay can help. Also including some of the canned tortoise pellets (Pretty Pets, RepCal, Mazuri) can help increase the fiber content. When my animals are on a low fiber diet I include a few pellets a week of Pretty Pets or Mazuri.

Some chopped vegetables can be included as a small part of the diet. Carrots, squash, etc.

Be sure to include a calcium supplement. Calcium with D3 for indoor animals, and just plain calcium for outdoor animals.

I don't have a russian, but a hermanns, whose care is similar. During the winter I grow weeds indoors for mine. I got the seeds from www.turtlestuff.com.

During the summer I pick weeds from outside. I also do feed greens from the grocery store, but also with the weeds from outside or ones I have grown indoors.

From the grocery store I mainly feed dandelion greens, endive, escarole, turnip greens and mustard greens. I rotate, always going back to the dandelion greens in the middle ie: 1st week dandelion greens, 2nd week endive, 3rd weed dandelion greens, 4th week escarole, 5th week danelion and so on. This is mainly just because dandelions are his favorite. He also gets cactus pads on occasion, but doesn't like them as much as the dandelion greens (or flowers in the summer). During the year or so I have had him he has had a tiny bit of fruit only once and a small peice of cucumber once. I have also fed him "spring mix" as I usually have it in the house for myself and give some of it to him now and then.

I also sprinkle "tortoise crutons" on the food when my weeds are not at a point where they can be fed. It is basically just dried weeds you sprinkle on the greens. I also got that from www.turtlestuff.com. I sprinkle calcium on every other feeding and a multivitamin once a week (not on the same day as calcium). When he was younger I did calcium 5 days a week, multivitamin once a week and one day without anything sprinkled on. He is a year and 6 months old now.

Hi,
Bradtort has given you the russiantortoise website link. Joe Heinen, who runs that site, also owns Carolina Pet Supply, and you can buy packets of weed seeds from there that are specially formulated for Russian torts.

http://www.carolinapetsupply.com/catalog/

Click on Organic Seeds in the lefthand column, and then scroll down to the Russian Tortoise seed mix.

Nina
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