If you’re the proud owner of a tortoise, you’ll know just how much time and effort goes into looking after them. Now, thanks to improved information on what tortoises can and cannot eat, the website Russian Tortoise has released its revised Russian tortoise diet guide for 2017.
As the guide makes clear, the Russian tortoise is a natural grazer in the wild. It subsists on a diet of wild plants and weeds during the active months, and then lives off its fat reserved once the weather turns cold in the winter. For some owners, knowing what to feed their tortoise instead of wild weeds can be a challenge: after all, some foods are potentially poisonous. This is where the Russian Tortoise guide can help. First off the guide points out that tortoise owners should never add meat to their tortoise's diet. Russian tortoises are strict herbivores, meaning that they cannot digest meat in their gut. Second, fruit should not be included in a tortoise's diet either according to the guide, because fruit can sometimes cause parasite blooms.
Russian Tortoise has put together an updated and comprehensive list of all the foods that are safe for these shelled critters to eat. These foods include aloe, yarrow, hollyhock, English daisy, chicory, artichoke, wild carrot, sweet potato, watercress, and oregano, as well as many others.
The guide also provides a list of plant foods owners should avoid feeding their tortoises. These include plants like Boston Ivy, Candy Tuft, and Daffodils. The fact that some plants can hurt tortoises means that owners need to make sure their living quarters are safe. Tortoises that live in landscaped outdoor enclosures must be kept away from all of the poisonous plants mentioned in the guide. As the guide points out, “food is medicine” for these unique animals, meaning that owners need to take care to weed any landscaped outdoor living areas before their tortoises arrive.
What Else Is In The Guide?
The Russian Tortoise guide is far more than just a list of foods that tortoises can and cannot eat. It’s a comprehensive manual where tortoise owners can learn more about all aspects of looking after their unusual pets. Here, there’s information on buying tortoises, including finding the right pet shop, caring for tortoises, providing them with the right housing and giving them the right temperature and lighting. All of these elements must come together if pet tortoises are to remain happy and thrive living side by side with their human owners.
The guide also covers what owners need to do when their tortoise goes into hibernation over the winter. Tortoises hibernate between October and March when the weather is cold, and this results in dramatic changes in their metabolism to conserve energy. Once they emerge from hibernation after six months, they need to be given plenty of food, containing all the nutrients they have missed out on over the winter.
Finally, owners can learn more about the intricacies of Russian tortoise breeding and how to facilitate a healthy clutch of hatchlings. This includes things like understanding what the tortoise mating ritual involves as well as how to store the eggs.
For the full guide, head over to russian-tortoise.com/diet-guide
Contact:
Russian Tortoise Care Center
Address: 100 Crescent Court,#9701, Dallas,TX 75201
Telephone: (214) 760-8915
Email: kelly@russian-tortoise.com
Website: http://russian-tortoise.com/diet-guide
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