Winter Feeding

[Anandita]

Hello,

I'm not going to hibernate Truck this year as I've only had him/her since May and I think he/she is only just a year old

As weeds could be scarce I saw I can feed chrispy floret salad but I've also seen in M&S they sell edible flowers that contain pansies, would this be ok too?

Anything else you could recommend would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

[Nina]

I think you are right to keep him awake this winter, especially as he had that problem with his eye in August, and he is still so young.

The crispy florette salad is fine, but I wouldn't feed too much of it. It's mainly different lettuces (although there are some other things in there as well) and while lettuce has lots of water and helps with hydration, it's what we call a 'wet' food. These are foods that don't have a lot of fibre and go through the digestion system quickly (and tortoises are designed to digest food slowly). So some is OK, but don't make it a majority of the diet.

The edible pansies should be fine (but do wash them well in case the plants were sprayed with anything while growing). Even in winter there is usually something growing outdoors (plantain, low growing campanula, etc.). A little bit of kale is OK too -- but not too much, as it's a member of the cabbage family and they contain goitrogens so you don't want a lot of them.

For a commercial food the only one we would recommend is Testudo Pre Alpin, and it is excellent. It's composed completely of plants from alpine meadows and is high in fibre and low in protein, which is what Truck needs. You can buy it in several places -- here is one: https://buzzardreptile.co.uk/?s=PRE+ALP ... pe=product It comes in 3 four varieties: original, herbs, fibre, and baby. Some are loose and some are in big pellets called cobs. You soak it in warm water and it rehydrates and expands, so you don't need a lot and it goes a long way. I would mix a bit of it in with your crispy florette (wet the florette leaves first so that the Pre Alpin sticks to it), and then gradually reduce the lettuce and increase that.

Here's an article on winter feeding: http://www.tortoisetrust.org/enews/

The other thing you can do is buy special seed mixtures for tortoises and grow them in a succession of little trays that you can put in with Truck when the plants are big enough to eat. Shelled Warriors sell seed mixtures, and I would buy the smallest quantity of, say, 10g of the mixture with 10 varieties, or 5g of the luxury mixture with 65 varieties (you need to scroll down the page to see all the varieties), and try and grow your own to supplement what you are giving him: https://www.shelledwarriorsshop.co.uk/s ... s-54-c.asp

I hope that gives you some options,

Best,
Nina

[Anandita]

Thank you so much Nina, I'll get growing and also try the pre alpin Hopefully winter won't be too bad.

[Nina]

Mine didn't like the Pre Alpin at first, but I tricked them by mixing it with fresh food they liked, and gradually reduced the amount of their favourite food and and now they eat it neat with no problems at all. An interesting fact: Andy Highfield from The Tortoise Trust says Testudo Pre Alpin is the only commercial food he would recommend and that poos from tortoise that eat it look exactly like poos from tortoises in the wild (which is a good thing). They do look different -- drier and more like bundles of fibre than the poos we ordinarily see.

Good luck with the growing!

Nina

[Anandita]

That's very interesting, I won't be worried in the change of poo consistency now lol

What is the best soil to grow the seads in, does it need to be fertilizer free?

[Nina]

Usually you don't want a lot of fertilizer in a seed sowing compost, so you can use John Innes no. 1 or any seed sowing compost. But if it is weeds you're sowing, they prefer a really poor soil, so you could use just about anything -- including some of the substrate from the tortoise table I would think. Once plants germinate and start to get bigger then some plants might require a bit of fertilizer, but weeds are happy to stay in poor soil, so you wouldn't need anything else, and you're probably going to feed them when they aren't very big anyway, so you'll be fine.

Keep the seeds you've sown in pots or whatever and in a nice warm place, like an airing cupboard if you have one, and they should germinate fairly quickly (but they colder it is the longer they will take to germinate).

Nina

[Anandita]

Thank you Nina for you help, I'll get growing