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| StarTortoises.net | * Indian / Sri Lankan & Burmese Star Tortoises... plus a few other species... |
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Burmese & Indian / Sri Lankan Star Tortoises
Other Stars Angulate Tortoise Misc. Pages
Tips:
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Feeding Star Tortoises and other dry area herbivores
Burmese Star (G. platynota) enjoying some radicchio Indian / Sri Lankan (Geochelone elegans) and Burmese Star (Geochelone platynota) tortoises have comparable care and dietary requirements. Animal products - NOT In the wild, Star tortoises are mostly herbivorous, but may occasionally eat some animal matter as well. That said, a 100% vegetarian diet is recommended for captive Stars. Do NOT feed animal products (e.g. NO dog or cat food). Fruits & vegetables - max 5-10%, if any Avoid giving too many sweet foods, like fruit, to your Star tortoise. They are "junk food" for herbivorous tortoises and may cause colic, parasite blooming, and other problems if fed in excess. Many Star tortoise keepers feed no fruit at all. Give less than 10% of the total diet, if any. Grasses, succulents, greens & flowers - 90% + In general, at least 90% of a Star tortoise's diet should consist of fiber-rich grasses and greens. Mixed grasses, dark greens, weeds, coarse leaves, and succulents should make the bulk of a Star tortoise's diet. A diverse diet is most important! Offer as large variety of food items as possible. Rotate and/or mix foods. Examples:
Yes, you can buy dandelions from the grocery store if you run out of weeds on your yard! :O) However, the dandelions sold in grocery stores are usually Italian dandelions which are a type of chicory. Ideally, do not feed grocery store greens exclusively. Use them as secondary foods only. Choose organic produce if possible. Most sedums are considered safe for tortoises to eat, but do avoid feeding Sedum acre. It's said to be toxic. Here's a link to sedum photos [off site]. For more complete food lists, see the Diet section of the links page.
Salad hay mix, dandelions, and radicchio Cactus For human culinary purposes, Opuntia ficus-indica cactus (aka Nopal, Indian Fig Opuntia, Mission Cactus, Prickly Pear) is used most often. Nopal is native to Mexico, but missionaries planted it around most missions in early California. Thus, the common name Mission Cactus. The spineless variety has tiny, nearly invisible barbed hairs called glochids which dig into skin. I wear thick kitchen gloves when handling spineless cactus pads. I scrub the pads with a brush under running water to remove most of glochids, but I often still get a few on my fingers. They tickle, burn, and hurt. You can try to remove glochids from your hands with duct tape, melted candle wax, glue, tweezers, or scrubbing with a nail brush. Most tortoises seem to have a taste for cactus. My Sri Lankan and Burmese Star tortoises love it, too. :O)
I store my cactus pads (Opuntia ficus-indica) in containers filled with sandy Nutrient levels Researchers are still trying to determine the ideal amount of protein in tortoise diets. Tortoise Trust mentions in one of their online nutrition articles (see links page) that the safe upper protein limit in the diet would seem to be 7%. Wild tortoises typically eat about 2-6% plant protein on WET basis. Dr. Hartmut Wilke comments in his new book (My Turtle, 2009) that the ideal tortoise diet should contain 20% plant protein for adults and 24% for youngsters in DRY substance. Crude fiber content should be 12-30%. Now, protein measured on wet basis cannot be directly compared to protein measured in dry substance. For example, the protein content of dandelions is 2.7% on wet basis and 18.7% in dry matter (Star Tortoises, 2007). According to Susan Donoghue, MS, DMD, DACVN (in Mader's Reptile Medicine and Surgery, 2006) most herbivorous tortoises consume diets that contain about 75% carbohydrates, 20% protein, and 5% fat. High fat levels, above 12%, can cause digestive upsets in herbivores. Diet supplements Supplementation is a controversial issue in captive tortoise care. Some keepers believe daily supplementation with calcium and multivitamins is very important for growing tortoises. Others feel that over supplementation is a real danger and find supplements totally unnecessary. The rest fall somewhere in between. They use calcium and vitamin supplements, but not daily. If you are sure your tortoise's diet is spot on (hard to do), he may not need any vitamin supplementation. However, ensuring adequate calcium, mineral, and vitamin intake is important for Star tortoises, especially for young ones and egg-laying females. Calcium I use the phosphorous-free, ultra fine Rep-Cal calcium powder If you choose to use human calcium supplements, select a product that consists of pure calcium carbonate powder I also keep cuttlebones Some keepers offer limestone flour Vitamins & minerals I mostly use Rep-Cal's Herptivite I also serve Mazuri Tortoise Diet and Zoo Med Natural Grassland foods a few times a month as an additional nutrition source. If you feed Mazuri frequently, there is no need for additional multivitamin supplementation. Mazuri is vitamin and mineral fortified. Do provide additional calcium though. Frequency The frequency of my calcium and vitamin supplementation depends on the diet, time of the year, and the stage of the tortoise. During winter, when my tortoises eat more store greens and less backyard weeds, I add calcium and vitamins to their food more often. Also, the younger the tortoise, the more often I supplement. Calcium supplementation is especially important for babies, youngsters, and egg-laying females. Young Star tortoises are fairly fast growing and need plenty of calcium for healthy bone development. In gravid tortoises, building egg shells draws a lot of calcium from the mother's reserves. It needs to be replaced in the diet. Sticky Tongue Farms recommends to use their Miner-All reptile calcium & mineral supplement (see info above) every feeding from babies to half-growns, every other feeding from half-growns to subadults, and every third feeding for adults. Food for egg-laying females should be supplemented every other feeding. A general recommendation from Simon Girling, a UK zoological veterinary surgeon (Pet Owner's Guide to the Tortoise, 2002), is to offer plain calcium daily. Multivitamins and minerals can be given twice a week for youngsters and once a week for adults. Sprinklers Old, odorless spice bottles made of glass work well as calcium and vitamin shakers. The smaller the holes on the lid, the better. The screw-on caps keep them airtight. I hold the bottle sideways and just gently tap it with my finger. This allows me to sprinkle a very fine layer of the powder onto wet greens. I keep most of the vitamin powder in its original container and just move small amounts to the sprinkler for ease of use. I store the sprinkler bottles in a dark pantry, but you can also cover or paint the outside of the bottles to make them dark. Vitamin products keep their potency longer if they are stored in a dark, cool, and dry place.
Indian Star tortoises (G. elegans) munching on hibiscus. Commercial foods Ideally, Star tortoises should eat a great variety of natural foods. They do not need any commercially prepared foods if they eat a balanced diet, but many tortoise owners like to serve them occasionally. Just like substrates, commercial diets are often debated among tortoise owners and breeders. Some feel it's beneficial to offer some commercial tortoise food as a complement to grasses and greens, while others think it's totally unacceptable to feed prepared foods. If your tortoise youngster is not fond of munching on greens that have vitamin powder on them, feeding prepared tortoise diets every so often is one way to provide additional vitamins and minerals to him. Commercial foods and dry grass products can also be handy in the winter time when tortoises cannot graze outside. Mazuri Tortoise Diet is very popular among US tortoise keepers. Zoo Med's Natural Grassland Tortoise Food is another common tortoise food. The latter pellets look like small, dried pieces of pressed hay. In Europe, Pre Alpin Testudo by Agrobs is a highly rated tortoise food. I only use prepared foods as a supplement to my tortoises' regular diet. I like to keep the pellet foods to less than 10-25% of the total diet. For more info on commonly available prepared foods, see the additional notes on commercial tortoise diets. Tortoise feces Tortoise poop should be dark in color and firm in texture. If your tortoise's feces are constantly lighter green and loose, he may have internal parasites, or he may be eating an incorrect diet. The higher the coarse fiber content in the food, the more undigested plant pieces can be seen in the poop. Here's a photo of one of my Burmese Star's poop. :O) For info on checking tortoise poop (gross, smear, float) see the fecal exams page. Visitor comments Share your experiences as a Star tortoise keeper. What has worked for you? What didn't? Post your observations on the visitor comments board or the guestbook. More info For info on commonly available prepared foods, see the additional notes on commercial tortoise diets. See also the Diet section of the links page.
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as my main calcium supplement. I prefer the calcium formula with vitamin D3 in the winter time when my tortoises are kept indoors and without D3 during the spring, summer, and fall when they are outside in the natural sun.
