Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi, Its my first time posting in this forum. Can anyone recommend an effective way to plant Dandelions in my 3-Toed Box Turtle pen? as well as what other healthy foods that they like to eat to plant. I know that dandelions are very healthy and tasty for 3-Toeds thats why I would like Dandelions to be their primary leafy greens. I would post pictures of my pen but I dont know how.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
-Tony C

** By the way, I have 2 females, a mom and her daughter and I live in SoCal if that helps, If anyone knows where to buy a male PLEASSSSSSSSE tell** -Thanks again -Tony C

I would harvest the seeds they produce in your yard then scatter them in the turtles pen, not sure if you can buy seeds or not, I would just worry about fertilizer.

Yeah, I dont think I'll use fertilizer, but if I do, it will be some type of organic fertilizer. Otherwise I'd just use cypress mulch and peat moss and some sort of harmless nutrient rich soil similar to that.

Thanks a lot for the ideas and help.

-Tony C

We don't put weed killer in our yard, so I just find some dandilions that I want to transplant to my pen, water them, water the transplant site and move them as quickly as possible.

I used to just pull leaves and put them in their pen, but if you misjudge and they're not in the mood, you've wasted the leaves.

I've never tried to grow any from seed in my pen and I think if any sprouted, they would be nibbled away before they grew much at all. The big ones I transplant don't last long.

With only two turtles, depending on your pen size, you may have better luck keeping them going in your pen.

It is worthwhile, my turtles love dandilions and they are very nutritious!

Back in the day before we had a giant tortoise and before we had box turtles we used to use weed killer but it never got rid of all of them.
5 years ago we hardly had any dandelions at all. Then we got the tort, started watering the few dandelions we had & we use an organic fertilizer called Hu-More once a year. We absolutely must use some fertilizer at least once a year.. or everything fades out & doesn't do well. Right now I cannot get over how full of dandelions the yard is! I have never seen so many.
The turtle pen is just as full of them as the rest of the lawn.
Just watering them on purpose seems to have made them grow in more than anything else. When they do go to seed I just get outside & kick them around. They are everywhere without much effort.
I think the advice to find the seeds & spread them around where you want them ASAP should work very well as long as they get enough water.
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PHRatz