Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi
I bought what I thought was a prickly pear cactus at home depot for my sulcata. However it wasn't labeled as a certain kind of cactus, just assorted cactus. Here is the link of the producers of these guys3rd row down/5th to the right) In the pic it's in the far right. It's sideways so it's a really bad pic of it. http://www.mikecosta.com/gallery.asp

I realize it's hard to see, but maybe someone else saw this before at the store or something and can help.

So my question would be are there cacti that look like prickly pear that are infact not prickly pear and not edible for tortoises?
Thank you
Mike

I bought some there live in pot's and I'm letting them grow for a year before I try and feed it to my tortoises.
Some of them will have a lable that say Prickly Pear Collection. If it doesn't have the name on it I wont get it.

DragonDavy

I was at a nursery a few months ago looking for a well established prickly pear. The guy told me if it's not labeled as opuntia or napales then it's not the edible prickly pear. He told me they are not all edible. Prickly pear is very easy to grow, if you can find a pad all you have to do is stick in the ground and it will take off in no time.

Here is the pic:

I haven't seen many Opuntia I would feed to torts at garden centers. Most are rather spiny or have glochids. Why muss? Why fuss? Go spineless!

Spineless Opuntia sources:

www.TopTropicals.com - O. tomentosa

www.ebay.com - search for NativeEchoes & e-mail her - Nopalea cochenillifer

www.carolinapetsupply.com - O. ficus indica

There are other sources but I have found these to be reasonably priced and relatively available.

I have some spineless prickly pear cacti available. It's the Opuntia ficus-indica. Great Stuff. Email me at Trailboy99@aol.com

Ian