Tortoise Food
For A Healthy Tortoise

Keep a tortoise healthy with good tortoise food.

If you have a tortoise at home, here is a list of good things to eat that might be in your yard. This list is a general list. At the end of this page is a link to a list of care sheets for particular tortoises.

• Cactus -- pads and fruit and yummy, spines are owie
• Dandelions
• Grape leaves
• Grass and weeds from your garden
• Hibiscus -- flowers and leaves
• Nasturtium
• Roses -- flowers and young leaves
• Squash -- banana squash, summer squash, and yellow crookneck squash
• Succulents -- Aloe vera
• Wandering jew
• Zucchini fruit and leaves

The list above is the best food for a tortoise. You can grow or buy the yummy treats below for your tortoise once in a while. Just be sure there are no pesticides on them and serve them raw, please.

• Broccoli
• Collard greens
• Corn on the cob
• Endive
• Romaine lettuce
• Tomatoes

For really, really special treats, feed your tortoise the things below. No pesticides, raw only, and please give these only once in a while.

• Strawberries
• Melons -- not watermelon
• Apples -- NO SEEDS

Tortoises, especially female tortoises and hatchlings, need calcium, so you can sprinkle tortoise food with calcium carbonate or feed us boiled crushed chicken egg shells. Some people scrape a cuttlebone over tortoise's food.

Food that is dangerous to tortoises

The things in this list are NOT food for a tortoise. Do NOT feed these to your tortoise. And be sure your tortoise can't just find them and eat them on his or her own. These are dangerous!

• Anything sprayed with pesitcides
• Apple seeds
• Bananas
• Beans
• Cabbage
• Cat food
• Chard
• Dog food
• Iceberg lettuce
• Peas
• Sprouts of any kind
• Spinach
• Watermelon

Here is a list of many poisonous plants. Be sure your tortoise can't get any of these. You can read about the special food each tortoise needs if you click the links below.

• African Spurred Tortoise
• Burmese Mountain Tortoise
• Elongated Tortoise
• Hingeback Tortoise
• Leopard Tortoise
• Red Foot and Yellow Foot Tortoises
• Spider Tortoise
• Spur-Thighed Tortoise
• Star Tortoise
• Sulcata Tortoise
• Travancore Tortoise

And don't forget to feed the turtles

• Box turtles in general
• Flower-Back Box Turtle
• Ornate Box Turtle
• Three-Toed Box Turtle

From Tortoise Food to Tortoise Facts



Keep it slow and steady.

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