Vegetarian Tortoise Diet | sunland-breeders

The Tortoise Diet

Outline

The purpose of this document is to spell out the reasoning behind nutritional choices for certain arid and desert Tortoises. We also provide a comprehensive list of consumerist foods that accompany this information. This is not a full and finite list. We based this list off of items which are available and easier to recognize.

Although it is always fun to find the obscure and rare item of food here and there weather it is a flower or vegetable, consistency is much more important.

This list is focused on only vegetarian species of tortoises and does not include some of the omnivorous or carnivorous species of tortoise like the tropical south American tortoises, box turtles or aquatic turtles.

Vegetarian Tortoises include (but they are not limited to) the following:

Desert Tortoises

Sulcata Tortoises

Leopard Tortoises ssp.

Hermans Tortoises ssp.

Greek Tortoises ssp.

Marginated Tortoises

Russian Tortoises ssp.

Star Tortoises ssp.

Vegetation

Leafy Vegetation

The base diet for a these Tortoises is fresh and leafy green vegetables. We account this as approximately 80% of their base diet.

It should be noted; baby vegetables are a great route. Vegetables lose minerals and vitamins as they age and grow. Usually when we talk about baby vegetable we are referring to sprouted greens and new shoots. New vegetable growth is jam packed with minerals and vitamins, perfect for a growing animal.

Not only are they higher in nutrients, but Oxalates and phosphorus are also found in lower concentrations in baby plants when compared to adult plants per volume. If you are wondering what an oxalate is, how phosphorus interacts in the body, and why those are important, I discuss it later.

Comparatively, fully mature vegetation is extremely fibrous or dry, albeit lacking the potency of vitamins and minerals when diminish with a plants age. They have a higher concentration of Oxalic acid and Phosphorus.

Do Not feed spinach, parsley, chard or broccoli. They contain a high amount of oxalic acid.

For Example:

Endive
Escarole
Dandelion greens
Shredded or cubed cactus pads
Baby kale**
Red leaf
Green leaf
Arugula
Chicory leaf
Mustard greens
Turnip greens
Radish greens
Romaine (in moderation)
Grape leaves
Hibiscus leaves

Sprouted seeds

Root Vegetation

Root vegetables when shredded, will add variety into their diet. Usually, I feel these out two to three times a week in addition to leafy vegetables. These root vegetables are extremely filling and a great way to put weight onto you animal. It should be noted, most of the plants attached to these root vegetables are also edible and should be offered due to the overall variety of nutrition available.

For Example:

Yellow squash

Banana squash

Zucchini

Yams

Sun burst squash

Acorn squash

Hubbard squash

Fibrous Vegetation

Fibrous food and dry grasses are a great additive to a Tortoises diet. Not only is fiber great for their digestive tract, but it is also a great bedding and way to bind up loose stool especially if there is any type of health concern.

For certain species of Tortoise, dry grasses and hays are essential for the health and digestive tract. For example, Sulcata Tortoises, Leopard Tortoises and Desert Tortoises have been seen specifically eating dry grasses even when fresh greens are present.

This is less common with other species like the Hermans ssp. and Greek ssp. For these groups of tortoises, it is less common for them to eat the bulk of these fibrous foods we observe with those larger desert species, but they will eat them in moderation on a seasonal rotation. Usually near the end of their season before brumation they eat more dry grasses. It is usually due to the preparation of brumation and also natural queues of dry grasses being more available.

For Example:

Timothy hay

Bermuda grass

Edible and Organic Weeds

Dry edible herbs

Flowers

There are a variety of flowers that are non-toxic. You must be aware of the source of your flowers. Food-grade flowers are hard to find, but if you have the available, they are extremely enriching for your animals. They must be non-fertilized and fully organic. Runoff from contaminated water can leach pesticides into the flowers and other toxins which will cause sickness or death in your Tortoise.

If you have both space and time, home grown flowers and flowering plants are a great source of food for your animals. A majority of the flowers we feed out to our Tortoises are grown on our property inside of our tortoise cages.

Just know your sources.

For Example:

Dandelions
Hibiscus
Roses
Dendrobium Sp. of Orchid
Pansies
Carnations
Dahlia
Violets
Nasturtiums

And any form of these flowers dried

Supplementation

Supplementation generally needs to be a calculation of the following:

Calcium (1.5% per serving) + Vitamin D3 (3,000 IU/KG)

For Example:

Repashy Grassland Grazers
Repashy Superveggie
Zoo Med Repti Calcium with D3
Mazuri tortoise pellets (soaked)

Miner-all

Fruit

Fruits are not a natural diet for most of these desert and arid Tortoise species.

Fruit should only be fed as a seasonal option as less than 10% of their diet.

Seasonal feeding is a common term you may hear, it means during the hottest periods of the summer, after egg laying and before hatchling tortoises will come out of the ground, that would be the most natural time of the year when wild fruits will be available.

We must distinguish between desert species of tortoises and arid species of tortoises.

In general, both the Leopard Tortoises and Sulcata Tortoises never have fruit options. In the area these two are found, the fruit option available is called a Bitter Melon. It is known as having an extremely dense rind, and incredibly difficult to break open. The other fruits you may find are Cactus Fruits, known for their low sugar content and high hydration, vitamins and minerals. On average, Cactus fruit has less sugar per 100 grams than the average carrot. Both are very uncommon for wild tortoises to be observed eating unless they are desperate.

In contrast, arid species of tortoises tend to have more seasonal fruit baring plants available. We still recommend for arid species of tortoises to only have 10% of their diet as fruit. We have found these animals only eat fruit if they are desperate and will eat the leafy green of the fruit tree and shrubs prior to actually eating the fruits themselves. Especially with captive bred animals, we find more of our species of arid tortoises' babies and hatchlings will choose greens over fruits every time.

The concentration of sugar and vitamin C is directly related to how much of this food your tortoise can eat. In higher concentrations of vitamin C and sugar, the less often you should feed them out. Some vegetables have a high concentration of sugar and vitamin C relatively similar to the amounts found in fruit. For example, carrots and Bell Peppers are one of the most common which come to mind.

Sugar rich foods can be a problem for Tortoises due to the fact they cannot process high volumes of sugars in these foods. Even some vegetables in high doses (like carrots) can cause diarrhea. Sugar provides an environment, which has been found to aid in the flourishing of parasitic cultures inside of the body. It has also been linked feeding these tortoises high sugar food has led to the development of certain diseases like Herpes. The sugar content will cause imbalances inside of the gut of your tortoises which leaves them open and susceptible to disease and amoebas.

I.e. feeding tortoises a giant and cheap bag of carrots does more harm than you may realize.

It is not normal for a Tortoises to have diarrhea. It is not normal for a Tortoises to be swollen and puffy with visible fat depletion in the legs and arms. It can even be as bad as sunken in eye sockets with swollen necks. These show signs the Tortoises homeostasis is thrown off.

The big issue with diarrhea really stems from one thing. Diarrhea causes dehydration. The compound fructose (a common type of vegetable sugar) pulls water to the gut to flush the system. Diarrhea also interferes with the absorption of nutrients from food in your animal’s gut.

Desert and arid Tortoises tend to have strictly flowering leafy plants and dry grasses available as their primary diet.

Feeding Schedules & Brumation Considerations

Feeding should replicate the animal’s natural ecosystem. Feeding should be done daily. In the wild, Tortoises have the availability of food daily and are classified as a grazing animal. This means, while they have an active photoperiod, they will eat any time throughout the day, for the entire day.

By photoperiod, I should point out the differences between indoor photoperiods (artificial) and outdoor photoperiods (natural).

Indoor enclosures have sudden exposure to heat and light because everything is changed with a switch or timer artificially.

Naturally, the sun gradually heats up an area, or an area gradually cools off after the sun recedes.

The difference is, outdoors, animals have natural queue’s, which tell them to stop eating and go to bed. The air pressure, air temperature, surface temperature, and light are the main tells. Air composition and wind possibly help too. Indoors, they do not have these queues, which tell them to stop eating.

What happens then is that your animal will continue to eat until lights out. If your enclosures environment is too cold for the species, then the enclosure suddenly drops in temperature and your Tortoise is left with a belly full of vegetation.

Remember, reptiles are cold blooded; they need outside sources of heat to digest food. If the food sits, the food will build gas as it ferments and begin to decay in the belly. If you add in an attempt at brumation, the animal, which had consistent and regular exposure to heat lamps without any natural cues to brumation will eventually become very sick due to the food sitting in their belly and fermenting.

Reptiles as a whole do not have the same internal mechanisms that we have to throw up. Some have diaphragms, some don’t. Some have epiglottis’, others do not. If the food begins to rot, there is no way for your animal to express the mass of decaying food, and therefore must keep it in its belly until they are warmed up and can begin the digestive process. If this happens once on accident (i.e. one night or 24 hour period), your animal is unlikely to have severe consequences for the undigested food. The bulk of vegetarian food is carbohydrates, which are easily processed under heat lights. There are small amounts of vegetable proteins which are easier to digest for Tortoises due to the simplicity of their protein chains, especially if compared to protein chains on meat and insect matter.

Over a prolonged period of time (like brumation), undigested food will cause serious harm. In these instances, the digestive tract reactivates after the food begins to rot. The build up of gasses and decay will slowly begin to seep out of their mouth due to gut pressure and bloat. The likelihood of your animal breathing in these fluids are very high, and this is the main cause of a respiratory infection seen in captivity.

It may also cause other infections throughout the digestive tract, lethargy, and poisoning.

Know the specifics of your animal’s optimal hot area and optimal cool area, and their need and ability to brumate or not brumate.

Not all Tortoises can brumate which is an important reminder to know your species.

Oxalates

In recent years this term and compound has become a hot topic in the reptile keeping community.

Reptiles produce Oxalates. Vegetables contain the compound Oxalic Acid which metabolizes into Oxalates. Vitamin C can metabolize into Oxalates.

Oxalate compounds bind to minerals, mainly iron and calcium, throughout the urinary tract system. For some animals, they can simply expel this build-up of CaOx or FeOx naturally in their urine. Other individuals end up with health issues, stones forming in the kidney and bladder. Currently, stressful and invasive surgery is the only remedy for these Oxalate stones.

Other issues also arise. Minerals bind to Oxalates; in healthy situations, this is a way of clearing excess minerals from the body. Mineral are important for the functioning body, but when the homeostasis is off and there is an overabundance of one and not the other, they can be pulled from the digestive tract prematurely in order to bond to Oxalates. Therefore, leaving the animal in a mineral depletion which can cause bone and muscle issues in development.

There has been correlation to supersaturation of water counteracting this absorption of minerals from Oxalates in the digestive system, a way of healthily flushing the animal’s system of excess oxalates. This means dehydration makes your animal more likely to form Oxalate Stones.

It must be noted that in a study published by Creighton University, Omaha, Oxalates more likely bond to the minerals of the plant matter it comes from. In the study, absorption rates of calcium were recorded for spinach and milk. Milk naturally does not have Oxalates, Spinach does. The calcium in milk was found to have not been affected by the Oxalates found in Spinach. Although Uromastyx don’t drink milk, it is still a good notation about their relation and parameters.

Goitrogens

Goitrogen rich foods are believed to have an effect on thyroid hormone levels, thus disrupting iodine uptake in the thyroid gland. This is thought to be the cause of Goiters, the enlargement of a thyroid gland that can be painful and uncomfortable. Symptoms would look like uneven swelling to part or all of the neck area, unbalanced fat storage, lethargy, and weakened muscles.

And yes, Goiters have been found in Tortoises.

There are many reasons for the thyroid gland to become enlarged. Diffused enlargement occurs when the entirety of a gland is affected, while solitary enlargement only effects part of the gland. These two distinctions can have different causes and treatments so understanding the difference is important. Solitary enlargement can be caused by a variety of reasons, cysts and nodes for example. Diffused enlargement usually presents itself because of goiters from thyroiditis (inflammation). Comparatively, the autoimmune thyroiditis is distinguished as a painless swelling of the thyroid that changes shape and size over time.

Goiters are the thick tissue growth of the thyroid that does not change shape or size and is caused by the gland’s overstimulation of two certain hormones (TSH and HCG). When studied, the most popular causes of goiters were not from iodine deficiencies or goitrogenic foods. Current clinical and scientific literature pinpoints autoimmune diseases as the main culprit. A goiter due to iodine deficiency is actually rare in comparison.

Although it can be an issue, hysteria and complete diss-allowment of goitrogenic foods seems extreme. We always air on the side of caution. Be aware of your reptiles for any lumps. Limit the volume of foods that have goitrogens in them. Food which may contain moderate levels of goitrogens can also be beneficial by providing key minerals and vitamins. This is why it can be dangerous to completely cut them out of a diet for a healthy reptile, because variety and well-rounded diets are always the best option.

Calcium : Phosphate

The Calcium to Phosphate ratio is an important calculation to know and understand because these two compounds bond together in the digestive system. Optimally, you are looking for a Ca:P of 2:1. What this means is that for every two parts Calcium, there is one Phosphate to bond to. When foods are heavy in Phosphate, it pulls out calcium in the body until the Phosphate reaches the 2:1 ratio.

Phosphate rich foods and phosphate rich bodies will lead to a variety of issues long term like metabolic bone disease and malnutrition.

Calcium deficiencies and stones are the largest issue.

SHOP