Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i feed him collared greens and turnip greens and then sweet potatoes, green beans etc...basically he eats what my iguana and all my other herps eat....is that okay? i hope so cause he loves it. i read somewhere not to feed them very much fruit so once a week i'll give him some cantaloupe or strawberries..just a half a teaspoon or so on his salad.

amy

That seems like kind of a limited diet to me. What I feed my guys is as many dark leafy greens as I can get my hands on. That includes stuff you might find around the back/front yard and around the neighborhood like Plantain, Dandelion and just about any leafy weed you can find. I also feed my guys this stuff called Mazuri tortoise diet. It obviously adds some nutrients that I seem to be missing. My guys go nuts over it so I limit it to once or twice a week but it has shown some obvious benefits where it is used.

It's really impossible to actually know what is good or bad so many people get around this by feeding as much variety as possible. You might want to consider this approach on the other herps you have also and see what happens
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Ed
Tortoise_Keepers-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Trying to keep the fun in Chelonian care

i do feed a pretty good variety but as for feeding dandelions and such i wouldn't go getting dandelions out of my yard or my neighbors for that matter....no telling what they use on their lawns. i just didn't want to go on and on and on about what i feed so here's the list if you're wondering
collared greend
mustard greens
turnip greens
bok choy
sweet potatoes
squash
green pepper
yellow pepper
contaloupe
strawberries
watermelon
snow peas

this is all worked in and out of the basic greens above. i didn't want you to think i'm giving the same thing everyday and thinking that it's good for him.

whew...don't you worry about getting things out of your neighbors yard? my neighbors are SUPERfreaks. of course that's probably what they say about me "the lady with all the lizards, toads, turtles, and tortoises"...lol

You can grow your own weeds. You can get seeds from turtlecafe or turtlestuff.com they have nice grazing mixes. If yours is outside you can just plant this stuff outside. If not just plant them in pots and cut the tops and feed it to him. I would also maybe get some cactus and I would have hay readily available in the enclsoure, not alfalfa, but timothy and bermuda grass it is good and high in fiber. I would do the fruit even less then you are now. I only give it to mine like once a month if that and sometimes they don't even eat it.
Also make sure you are give them calcium and D3 (if they are indoors) and have the uvb light.
Russians are pretty hardy. I did not know any of this when I got my frist russian and she is awesom.

Christina
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0.0.1 Hatchling Indian Star Tortoise (Sitara)
1.1 Russian Tortoise (Willy & Mikey)
0.1 Ornate Box Turtle (Lily)
1.0 Red Eared Slider (Chester)
0.0.2 White's Tree Frog (Kermit & Phil)
0.0.1 Red eyed Tree Frog (Justin)
0.0.1 Big Eyed Tree Frog
0.0.2 Bubbling Frog
0.0.2 Tiger Leg Tree Frogs (Akari & Shiro)
0.0.3 Amazonian Milky Tree Frogs
0.0.1 Dwarf Megophrys
0.0.2 Rainbow Burrowing Frog/Ornate Hopper
0.0.1 Asian Blue Webbed Gliding Tree Frogs
0.0.1 Albino Pacman Frog
0.0.1 Budgett's Frog
0.0.2 Starry Night Reed Frogs
0.1 Praire Dog (Timmy)
0.2 Chinchillas (Layla & Snickers)
0.3 mice
0.1 dog (Holly)
2.0 Cats (Champ & Bear)

Oh and a husband

some cactus pads your neighbor thrown out after yard cleaning...see if you can do this DRIVE-BY (w/o leaving your car i supposed)... better still: plant some...

Purslane is also good its high in calcium and grows everywhere here in MI