What Do Tortoises Eat?

Quick answer: Most tortoises are herbivores that eat grasses, weeds, leaves, flowers and some fruit. Good pet foods include dandelion, clover and leafy greens. Tortoises should avoid dairy, meat and processed food, and some species need extra calcium.

Most tortoises eat plants: lots of leafy greens, weeds, grasses and flowers, with a little fruit for some species. A few tortoises from rainforests are omnivores and also eat small amounts of animal food, such as snails and insects, so the right diet depends on the kind of tortoise you have.

Why Diet Matters

Tortoises can live for decades, sometimes more than 50 years, and good food is one of the most important parts of keeping them healthy. A poor diet can lead to soft shells, weak bones, a lumpy shell (called pyramiding) and other illnesses. There are many tortoise species, and each is adapted to the plants of its home, from dry grasslands to deserts and forests.

A good rule is to copy what the tortoise would eat in the wild as closely as you can. Ready-made tortoise pellets can be a helpful extra, but they should never replace fresh plants.

Herbivores and Omnivores

Most tortoises kept as pets are herbivores, which means they eat only plants. These include Greek (spur-thighed), Hermann’s, Russian (Horsfield’s), sulcata and leopard tortoises. Their bodies are built to digest tough, high-fiber leaves, not meat.

A few species, such as red-footed and yellow-footed tortoises from South America, are omnivores. In the wild they eat fruit, fungi, flowers and leaves, along with the odd worm, insect or snail. Even these tortoises only need a small amount of animal protein, and many keepers give them a little now and then rather than often.

The Best Everyday Foods

For most tortoises, the main part of the diet should be high in fiber and calcium and low in protein, fat and sugar. Some wild tortoises eat more than 200 different kinds of plants, so variety is important. Good choices include:

• Weeds such as dandelion leaves and flowers, plantain, clover, sow thistle, chickweed and henbit
• Leaves such as mulberry, grape vine and hibiscus leaves
• Flowers such as hibiscus, rose petals, nasturtium, pansy and calendula
• Greens such as romaine lettuce, lamb’s lettuce, endive, chicory, rocket (arugula) and watercress, given alongside weeds rather than on their own
• Grasses and hay, such as Timothy hay, for grassland species like sulcatas

In dry regions, wild tortoises graze on whatever desert plants they can find, from grasses and wildflowers to prickly pear cactus pads growing among plants like agave. Pet tortoises love to graze too. Letting them roam a safe, pesticide-free garden patch lets them choose foods for themselves.

Grass and Hay

Grass and hay suit some tortoises better than others. Grazing species such as sulcatas and leopard tortoises eat large amounts of grass in the wild. Mediterranean species eat less of it, so their diet should be mostly broad-leaved weeds and flowers instead.

Calcium and Sunlight

Tortoises need a lot of calcium because their shell and skeleton are made of bone. Leafy weeds supply some calcium, and many keepers also sprinkle a little calcium powder over food or leave a cuttlefish bone in the enclosure.

To use calcium properly, a tortoise needs vitamin D3, which its skin makes when it is exposed to UVB light. Outdoors, natural sunlight does this. Indoors, tortoises need a special UVB reptile lamp. Without UVB, even a calcium-rich diet cannot keep their bones and shell strong.

Fruit and Meat

Fruit is high in sugar, so it should be only a rare treat for most tortoises, or left out altogether for Mediterranean and desert species. Forest tortoises, such as red-footed tortoises, eat more fruit naturally and can have it more often.

Herbivorous tortoises should not be fed meat, cat food or dog food. Too much protein can damage their kidneys and cause shell problems.

Foods to Avoid or Limit

• Iceberg lettuce, which is mostly water and has little goodness in it
• Spinach and beet greens, which can stop calcium from being absorbed if fed often
• Large amounts of cabbage, kale and other cabbage-family plants, which can affect calcium use and the thyroid gland when fed in excess
• Bread, cereals, dairy and any processed human food
• Poisonous plants such as rhubarb leaves, buttercups, daffodils and foxglove

Water

Always give your tortoise fresh, clean water in a shallow dish that it can walk into easily. Many keepers also give tortoises a warm, shallow bath (water no deeper than the bottom shell) for about 15 to 20 minutes a few times a week. This helps them drink and stay hydrated, especially in hot weather and for young tortoises.

Feeding Tips

• Feed in the morning, after your tortoise has warmed up under its lamp or in the sun.
• Remove leftover food at the end of the day so it does not go stale.
• Wash shop-bought greens, and never pick plants from areas sprayed with chemicals.
• Find out which species you have and where it comes from, because that tells you most about what it should eat.
• If you are unsure about any food, or your tortoise stops eating, ask a reptile vet for advice.

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