Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i have read many of you endorse a variety of vegetables and fruits to give to the boxies. my question is how do they like/tolerate potatoes? onions? oranges? are there any harmful or poisonous vegetables or fruits that i should avoid? thanks!

I remember reading some where that Onions were a no no as well as regular Iceburg Lettus Spinich is a no no

Dandilion greens .. ( you know the leaves from dandilion weeds in your yard ) are very good for them

Here we go this is directly from a web site By Tess Cook

"VEGETABLES make up about 30% of the diet. Use only the part of the vegetable that is colorful as it contains the most nutrition. Use fresh vegetables whenever possible, and steam or grate hard vegetables before offering to the box turtle.

REGULARLY—Summer and winter squashes, peas in the pod, sweet potatoes, okra, grated carrots, green beans, wax beans and cactus pads with ALL spines removed.
OCCASIONALLY—Mushrooms, corn on the cob and tomatoes.
RARELY—Sprouts, broccoli, cabbage, beets and cauliflower.

FRUITS make up about 10% of the diet and are dessert for your turtles. Most turtles love fruits and each seems to have a favorite. Try to find your turtle’s favorite. If it is a finicky eater, use the fruit to entice it to eat other foods. Chop the fruit into small pieces and mix it with things the turtle should eat but won’t. This way, with every bite of fruit it will also eat the required food. I sprinkle vitamins on the fruit as well.

REGULARLY—Grapes, fresh figs, blackberries, raspberries, mulberries, apples, crabapples, strawberries, cantaloupe, kiwis, cherries and persimmons.
OCCASIONALLY—Bananas and watermelon.

LEAFY DARKY GREENS make up the remaining 10% of the diet. Dark leafy greens contain fiber and many minerals and vitamins. Greens help keep the turtle gut healthy through their cleansing action. Always provide your turtles with greens.

REGULARLY—Collard greens, mustard greens, dandelion greens, carrot tops, wheat grass and turnip greens.
OCCASIONALLY—Romaine, red leaf lettuce, endive.
RARELY—Parsley, kale, Swiss chard.
NEVER—due to the high oxalic acid content or poor nutritional value: Spinach, rhubarb leaves and iceberg lettuce."

Here is the addy for that web site http://www.boxturtlesite.org/bxbook.html

Does anyone know why in that article it says to only feed swiss chard rarely? I planted a bunch and was hopeing that i could feed it to my boxie, but it says to only feed it rarely.does it was a chemical in it like spinach does?

Chard is in the beet family, which tends to have a higher oxalic acid content which is not good for them. There may be other reasons as well, but thats what I could find so far. There are plenty of other choices of greens that are easy to grow, but may not be one of your favorites!

ok thanks, I guess i will keep the chard feeding to a minimum. I have lots of dandilions in my yard, so this year i can see having a constant supply of greens