Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm probably going to be getting a baby leopard tortoise soon, and it will be my first tortoise experience. I'm making everything the best I can for it, including trying to grow some plants for it to eat freely. I got a list of healthy grazing plants off of http://www.anapsid.org/tortdiet.html. The tortoise will be completely indoors (for many years at least) so these will be grown indoors as well. What I'll probably be growing is clover, bermuda grass, and maybe one other thing off of the primary list from the link above, as well as herbs like mustard, chard, and spinach; maybe even an opuntia cactus if I can find a bulb or seeds cheap. Of course, this diet will also be supplemented with store-bought hay and grocery greens.

My question is, since I'm starting to grow these plants around the same time as I'm getting the tortoise and they won't be grown when I put the tortoise in its enclosure, should I try to grow the plants in the enclosure itself by setting aside an area to grow them in (can't seperate it from the tortoise as an area of such size would reduce the tortoise's roaming area more than i'd like) and let him eat them as they grow, or would that destroy the plants too early? The tort will probably eat them as soon as he finds them as sprouts. The alternative is to grow the plants outside of the enclosure and then transplant them, but, will such an action be too much of a change for the tortoise? He'll pretty much wake up one day to a whole new pen. The other effect of this is that the plants might not do too well being transplanted into the enclosure, as it will be much hotter and more arid than the conditions they'll be grown in.

Of course, the tortoise could learn to moderate his grazing if I grow the plants in the pen, or the plants could survive anyway. Will having the plants constantly accessible lead to over-feeding and pyramiding, or will it moderate its diet as in nature?

I'd grow them in pots & rotate them out as the tortoise eats them. I did that with a redfoot & it worked out pretty well.
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You can buy a seed mix from turtlestuff.com geared towards your kind of tortoise (it would eat the meadow mix). I would grow it seperate from the tortoise and clip off enough for feeding. Grow 3 or 4 different tubs, a week apart so they mature at different times and you can rotate which you are clipping from so you do not over do one tub.

Thanks a lot for the link, I hadn't seen it the last time I browsed turtlestuff.com. I went there and ordered some meadow mix, since I'd been shopping around for a bunch of different seeds and a lot of them were in that mix.

Something that can go under a bedding of hay, maybe accomodate plants, and give the tort something to dig in?

Also another random question, but with dirt comes bugs; how do carnivorous plants fare in tort enclosures? Sundews specifically? I don't suppose that the tortoise WON'T eat them, but just in case, are they harmful if eaten? Since I'll probably be using cinderblocks as walls for the enclosure, I could just try planting a sundew on top of the cinderblocks where the tort can't reach them...

With my torts I keep the greek (or did, she went missing this summer) on timothy hay, the box turtle is kept on carpet and the hermann's is on paper towel. The box and hermanns both have enclosed hides with stuff they can dig in, that I keep moist, just for ease of cleaning for me. The hermanns has a pile of hay in one corner also. I have kept my box turtle like this for years without any problems.

If you want to keep a loose substrate in the entire enclosure, organic soil can be used, bake it first to kill off anything in it. Many people like to use a soil/sand mix, others use a soil/coconut fiber mix (sold as eco earth at lots of petstores).

For a leopard i think a soil/sand mix would probably work well. I would put a pile of timothy hay over a corner on the cool end, and perhaps keep that area moist so it has a humid area to bury in if it wants.

If you wanted to keep some plants in the enclosure with it I would keep them in pots and bury the pots in the soil and change them out regularly so grazing doesn't kill them. Keep a few in different pots and change them out so they can grow back in between. Overgrazing can cause plants to react chemically in self defense, all though I don't know how/if this would affect a tortoise.

I don't know about keeping insect eating plants, I would make sure they are non toxic if ingested and that they do not give off any substances they may be toxic. I think making the soil may be a better way to help keep the bugs away. Also maybe hanging a fly strip over the cage?

I haven't kept leopards so maybe someone that has will have a better suggestion.

That should read "baking the soil" not "making the soil"