• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Spanish
  • Adopt
  • Contact
  • Legally Register
  • Re-home Your Tortoise
  • Lost and Found
  • My Account

Tortoise Group

Tortoise Group

  • Home
  • Services
    • Hotline
    • Adoption Program
    • Registration Program
    • Register to Legally Adopt Pet Tortoise (RLAP)
    • Yard Consultation
    • Snooper Service
    • Report Lost / Found Tortoise
      • View Lost and Found
    • Re-home Your Tortoise
    • Meetings, Clinics and Workshops
      • Community Meetings
      • Microchipping Clinics
      • Sterilization Clinics
      • Master Workshops
  • Desert Tortoise Info
    • Adoption
      • Desert Tortoise Adoption
      • Register to Legally Adopt Pet Tortoise (RLAP)
    • Care
      • Habitats
        • Water Pavilion for Tortoises
        • Gate Barrier
      • Food
      • Plants
        • Growing Dandelions from Seed
        • Transplanting Dandelions
        • Planting Prickly Pear Pads for Tortoises
        • Plants Poisonous to Tortoises
        • Hatchlings
          • Burrows for Hatchlings and Juveniles
      • Mating
      • Cold Weather
        • Brumation (Hibernation) When an Outdoor Burrow Is Not Available
      • Health and Illness
        • External Examination Checklist for Signs of Deficiencies, Disease, or Injury
        • Drowning In Tortoises
        • Life Cycle Of Desert Tortoises
        • Measuring Tortoise Size
        • Transporting Tortoises
        • Marking Your Tortoise
    • Veterinarians
    • Info Presentations
    • Desert Tortoise Laws
    • FAQ’s
      • Tortoises in the Classroom: Concerns and Alternatives
      • Salmonella Q & A
  • Publications
    • Care Sheets
    • Newsletters
    • Videos
    • Archive
  • Events
  • Shop
    • Merchandise
    • Food
  • Give
    • Donate
    • Volunteer Opportunities
      • Get Involved – Interest / Waiver
      • Volunteer Branches
  • Membership

Desert Tortoise Nutrition

We recommend a diet of no vegetables.  Instead, offer nutritious Tortoise Food made for desert tortoises. Grassland Tortoise Food sold online in Tortoise Group’s store and through our satellite sellers  provides all the necessary nutrients and fiber. Your purchase also helps support Tortoise Group’s work in the community.  Your tortoise can also enjoy dandelions, grass, and ornamentals so be sure to plant these.

Most deficiencies are from diets low in Vitamin A, Calcium, Protein, and Fiber. The challenge is to provide these nutrients without giving excessive sodium, or giving more phosphorus than calcium. A calcium to phosphorus ratio of 2: 1 is good. Tortoise Food sold by Tortoise Group fulfills these needs.

SPECIAL WARNINGS

  • SODIUM. Most fresh vegetables contain only 1 to 10 milligrams of sodium per 100 grams of the food. Canned vegetables average 236 mg per 100 grams!! Sodium is added to some frozen foods. Avoid: canned and frozen vegetables, dairy products, breads, and celery.
  • SPINACH has nutrients but also contains OXALIC ACID. Oxalic acid binds calcium making it UNAVAILABLE to the system. Avoid spinach. Also avoid beet greens and Swiss chard for the same reason.
  • BROCCOLI, KALE, COLLARDS and MUSTARD GREENS (of the cabbage family) have valuable nutrients but depress the thyroid. Goiters can develop from heavy use of the cabbage family.
  • NO CAT FOOD OR DOG FOOD. They may cause digestive problems because the fiber content is too low for tortoises.
  • NO SWEET FRUIT OR CORN. The sugars in these foods predispose desert tortoises to intestinal parasites.
  • NO FROZEN VEGETABLES especially for young tortoises. Some nutrients are lost when foods are frozen. Frozen carrots and broccoli are rubbery and corn is not healthful because of the sugar. Some frozen vegetables have added sodium.

Primary Sidebar

Donate

Download RoADs App!

Collect data as a citizen scientist, download the ROaDS App today!

Get Involved

VOLUNTEER
JOIN
ADOPT

Tortoise

LOST
FOUND
RE-HOME

Follow Us!

CONTACT US

Sign Up For Our Newsletter

Our Partners

Footer

  • About Us
  • Board Of Directors
  • Planned Giving
  • Press Kit
  • Privacy Policy

Tortoise Group is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that educates and advocates for the protection and well-being of the desert tortoise.

Copyright © 2025 Tortoise Group