Reptile & Amphibian Forums

.The easterns big pen now have over 60 tomato plants in it. They are all poop volunteers and are mostly around the wading ponds. The turtles don't seem to eat any plants and the one cherry tomato that almost got ripe was eaten (will post pictures if they scan). Tomatos are a night shade plant and toxic to humans in large amounts but the turtles haven't come up sick and aren't acting funny.

Its a great free food source and they also eat bugs around the tomato's

They don't hang out in the tomatoes like they do under the strawberries and blueberries so maybe smell is a issue?

Any help would be great.

Tomato fruits are not too bad for box turetles if not overfeed, but the rest of the plants are very toxic! I would remove them ASAP ans replace them with a few small mullberry bushes, ect... The plant smells bad to me, so maybe a box turtle doesn't like the smell either?

I had several tomato plants sprout and grow to maturity in one of my juvinile habitats. They love tomatoes, but never touched the plants. I didn't know they were toxic until they had been
in there awhile.

I'd keep an eye on them, but wouldn't worry too much about them
eating the plants.

Wild turtles must encounter tomato plants all the time, since it is something people commonly grow in their backyard, they probabably know not to eat them, probably the smell of the plant as they have a strong odor.

Thanks for the help, I talked with someone for the CDC and posion control and they said: The tomato is closely related to the botanical genus Solanum, to which belong many poisonous species.
Unripe tomatoes do contain poisonous alkaloids that disappear as the fruit matures.
All green parts of the plant are poisonous. A spray made from Tomato leaves is an effective but very poisonous insecticide
Mostly children have been severely poisoned from making a tea from the leaves, also livestock have died from eating the foliage and vines in large amounts and mixed with other foods.

They do believe wild animals will not normally eat these plants unless very hungry,mixed-chopped with other food items, or has a loss of smell.
They also stated they have no testing knowledge to back these findings.