Providing your red-footed tortoise with a proper and healthy diet is perhaps the most important part of their care. Proper nutrition will ensure your red-footed tortoise develops properly, stays strong, stays healthy, and even determines the quality of the colors on the tortoise.
Basically, a red-footed tortoise’s diet can be broken down into three parts: leafy greens, fruits, and supplements
Also, keep in mind that the list below is not exhaustive, but provides an accurate guide to your turtle’s diet.
Leafy vegetables
Leafy greens are a very important staple in your turtle’s diet and should make up the bulk of your turtle’s diet due to the nutrients they contain. A few basic leafy greens that you might like to include in your turtle’s diet are romaine lettuce, kale, mustard greens, kale, and the occasional spinach.
fruit
Fruits are another important part of your red-footed turtle’s diet. These fruits include tomatoes, strawberries, blue berries, black berries, apples, melons, papaya, and bananas.
Because of its sweetness, fruit should only be fed two to three times a week. If a red-footed tortoise is fed too much fruit, that’s all it wants to eat and it won’t get the vital nutrients that come from the leafy greens.
additions
To improve your turtle’s diet, nutritional supplements are used, most notably a calcium supplement. Calcium supplementation is important because it ensures healthy and strong bone and carapace development. These calcium supplements can be purchased at any pet store with a reptile section or online. Dust your turtle’s meals semi-regularly with the calcium supplement.
to avoid foods
A common mistake new turtle owners make is buying and feeding their turtles pellet food. Pellet food does not contribute any essential nutrients to your turtle’s diet and also contains grain products which are a cause of pyramidal turtle shells.
Also, no other human food should be fed to your turtle other than those mentioned in this article and other sources.
water
It is also important that you provide your red-footed turtle with a constant source of water. I keep a shallow bowl of water in my turtle’s habitat. Make sure the bowl is big enough for your turtle to get in, as it can double as a soaking pan.
Be sure to change the water regularly as dirt and other waste products get in regularly.
Thanks to Rob C Rhoden
