Reptile & Amphibian Forums

What's the best way to de-spine Opuntia pads? A buffing wheel on a drill motor is useless. A towel gets many but not all spines. Burning gets all the spines only if I also burn the superficial green soft tissue--which leads to greatly decreased shelf life and apparently less attractive flavor. I'm using about 15 lbs per week, and expect to at least double that figure. Suggestions appreciated.

Yes, any way you remove the spines seem to cause rotting to quicken. I use a razor blade right before serving (to humans or turtles). Can you buy them spineless or are you using your own plants?

I've found only one reliable local source, and the pads they market are all heavily spined.

Hi
I would not even bother removing them unless you have small animals and the spines are the size of nails. Then you can use the tip of a plyers to pull them out.
I have fed spiny cactus to several different types of torts very heavily without ever haveing a problem. Go online and look at what the spines on the galapagos cactus looks like. It is something out of a mad man's nightmare, and baby torts 5 inches long eat it like it was cotton candy with no problems. In fact, I don't think that I have ever heard of a problem with cactus spines before.

Logic is definitely on your side, considering how wild tortoises consume the stuff. But I keep getting visions of what happens to dogs that run afoul of foxtails (grass awns), which sometimes end up the the dogs' eyes, heart, brain. Are the spines digested by the tortoises, or do they pass right on through? Many tnx for your help.

I have several species of spiny cactus in my backyard that my Greeks and Russians have access to and consume frequently. In fact, the cactus in the Russians' pen is almost gone now. They all seem to eat the spiny parts without any difficulty, and, speaking from personal observation, the spines seem to be digested right along with the other parts. That is to say, I have never seen any spines in their feces. They do seem to eat around the larger spines as much as they can, but I know they have eaten plenty of spines. My personal belief is that a healthy tortoise has a digestive system like a 5-horsepower garbage disposal.

Then again, the types of cactus I have are fairly short-spined, not the ones with the four-inch stilettos you could use to hang a side of beef on.

Foxtails are a completely different thing then cactus needles. I had some sulcata's that ate foxtails all the time along with the grass around it. Never had a problem. The neighbor lady's cat who like to walk through that area went to the vet at least 2 or 3 times to have foxtails removed from it's paws and ears.
Tortoises consume almost 100% roughage and this combined with the gut bacteria that could digest a redwood decking pretty much takes care of spines and things like that.
If it makes you feel better, go ahead and scrape the spines off just before you feed, but the one who will end up with spine problems will be your hands unfortunately.