Hopefully if it works! If not its in his album :)

yay! just had to make it smaller

Hi, JD does seem to be enjoying his kale!  As kale is a brassica, it should not be a major part of the diet, but a little won't do any harm.    Jonathan

I dont give it to him every day just a few times a week :)

Hi, I hope one of the TPG people will comment on this but I would say that several kale meals per week probably is too much.

This time of year I am still able to find a very wide selection of weeds and garden plants.  I tend to resort to shop bought foods when there is very little else.

Jonathan

There are better foods out there to feed and Kale or (Curly Kale) is not good to feed on a regular basis. Weeds are still readily available, i managed to pick 2 bags full of dandies today, i think with all the rain we have had there seems to be more weeds available for this time of year so no need to feed supermarket foods.

Ali

yeh I picked a large handfull of dandelions today too :) hopefully he will eat them this time! we've had a hard time getting him to eat them so he obviously has never had them wherever he was before

i dont give him much a few times a week just a few pieces in with everything else

Personally you have a wonderful looking tortoise and i'm sure you want to keep his inners looking just as good. I really would try to leave the kale out and concentrated on the better things for JD. Long term it will make him stronger and more healthy and they do tend to acquire a taste (just like us humans) for things that aren't good for them. Recently I had a LONG conversation with a lady who made her tortoise a roast dinner EVERY Sunday, "BECAUSE HE LIKED IT!" eee....

HTH

Elaine

oh ok, its in a book i have on the list of greens that he can eat which is why ive been giving it to him, i just assumed it was ok as the book was written by a vet

Can you give me the link to the book and I can check it out? Perhaps he hasn't made it clear enough the it is VERY occasionally and not all keeper are as good as you to check.

thanks again

Elaine 

Yeh sure no problem, its in a list of greens in the nutrition section of the book

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pet-Owners-Guide-Tortoise/dp/1860541194/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1220908079&sr=1-1

This link from amazon has a few pages in the search inside bit but not the nutrition page but you can see a summary of the different chapters

I'll definately cut down his kale intake to an absolute minimum! Mum said he ate all the dandelions I picked for him yesterday and all the ones she picked for him today :) I also bought some seeds from the shelled warriors website yesterday to plant in my garden so I can give him a bigger variety of weeds

 to both you and mum for keeping offering the dandies;they are like caviour for tortoises. I will look into getting a copy of this book, so thanks for the reference. Have you looked at Lins site http://www.tlady.clara.net/id16.htm it provides pictures of good weeds for tortoises and many of them are in seed at the moment so you could collect the seeds for next year.

Night

Elaine

Hi Everyone,

I don't mean to put the cat amongst the pigeons or anything, but kale is actually not that bad for tortoises. If you look at this analysis of the properties of kale, watercress, dandelions, and turnip greens, you can see that dandelions are almost twice as high as kale in oxalates:
http://russiantortoise.org/nutritional_analysis_of_kale.htm
(sorry, but because of the browser I use I can't post live links here). Brassicas are a huge family, and not all of them are as bad as others. But I think it all comes down to what we usually say -- that most foods, given in moderation and as part of a varied diet are OK.

Nina

thanks for that nina, im going to try and get him onto weeds mostly now as i know thats the best and most natural thing for him, its just been hard not knowing where hes come from and what hes been eating but he finally seems to be eating them now! its good to know that i can still give him a little kale treat every now and then and not do him anymore damage, as he loves the stuff!

yeh ive come across this website a few times, i think its brilliant as id have no idea what alot of these weeds would look like! ive bought some seeds from the shelled warriors website, so hopefully that will introduce a bit more variety in his diet as i havent had much luck finding many edible weeds other than dandies! ive also bought some limestone flour so im gonna try my hand at those limestone cakes someone mentioned in one of the other threads! we've been giving him supplements anyway (nutrobal and something else) but he only seems to eat them on his tomato which i know isnt that good for him either!

My tortoises love kale but not my Hermanns or Russians as they have never had it whilst in my care.  Whilst kale is high in oxylates it also contains iodine which does counteract the side effect of oxylates to some extent; so I use it for my leopards during the winter months when it is difficult to get hold of fresh weeds.  I would give it to the Hermanns and Russians too if overwintering them, but as I haven't needed to as yet, they have yet to experience Kale in their diet as weeds are so plentiful at the moment. 

They only have salad greens too when weeds aren't available - which isn't that often to be honest - I'm a mean mummy

Helen