Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Recently I asked about feeding the prickly pear fruit to my tortoises.

I was warned that there were too many seeds, but the variety I found at the store seemed to have very few seeds.

I was warned that it would cause runny stools. Unfortunately that did happen.

But no worse than when I feed my russians and leopards plain grocery greens like collards, endive, etc. Even with some timothy hay mixed in, a diet of cactus pad and fruit still produced firm stools with excess fluid.

I've decided to cut out the fruit, although the torts really seemed to like it. It looks like the kind of item I might throw in every once in awhile, but not as a dietary staple.

Too messy.

Cacti fruit make up a huge percentage of all desert dwelling tortoises diets in the wild during fruit bearing seasons. It does make a mess, but it really isn't at all bad. Runny stools won't hurt the tortoise...people usually get worried when they see that because that is a sign of many other illness. If you know the cause then there is no reason to worry, right? Messy, but natural in the wild. If it's a means of natural survival in the wild then it's at least okay in captivity. Just my view.

Ian

If my animals were outdoors, I probably wouldn't care, but they are indoors for the winter, and the mess is more obvious and unpleasant.

The prickly pear pads themselves give my marginated tort loose droppings--don't know why, and not exactly runny, just very soft. The fruit is the only kind of fruit I give any of my torts, and it's only once a month or less, which is why I keep it frozen--and yes, the after effects are kinda messy, lol.

The hatchlings are doing great, BTW. Around 70g now.
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Sohni
Northern California