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Indian/Sri Lankan Star Tortoise (G. elegans)

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Burmese Star Tortoise
(G. platynota)

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Other Starred Tortoises

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Angulate Tortoise
(C. angulata)

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Tips:

Get THE Star tortoise book on amazon or eBay. It covers all aspects of Indian, Sri Lankan, and Burmese Star tortoise care. A must-have book for all current and prospective Star owners!

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Looking for Mazuri Tortoise Diet? You can find several sellers here.

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Submit your Star Tortoise diet and care tips. Post your message on the visitor comments bb or guestbook.

Feeding Star Tortoises

Culinary delights tortoise style

Feeding sprouts to tortoises is controversial. Some say it's ok, some say it's bad. According to their web site, the Phoenix Zoo keepers feed alfalfa sprouts to their Radiated tortoises. I gave sprouts to my Sri Lankan Stars once, but they didn't even touch them! In this photo, she is eating greens next to the sprouts, not the sprouts themselves.

Foods for Stars

Indian/Sri Lankan and Burmese Star tortoises have the same care and dietary requirements.

Animal products - NOT

• In the wild, Indian Star tortoises are herbivorous, but may occasionally eat some animal matter as well. That said, a 100% vegetarian diet is recommended for captive Stars.
• do NOT feed animal products, e.g. NO dog or cat food

Fruits & vegetables - max 10% if any

• Avoid giving too many sweet foods, like fruit, to your Star tortoise. They are junk food for herbivorous tortoises and may cause colic and other health problems. Many Indian Star tortoise owners, including me, feed no fruit at all.
• less than 10% of the diet, if any

Grasses, succulents, greens & flowers - 90% +

• In general, at least 90% of a Star tortoise's diet should consist of fiber-rich grasses and greens.
• mixed grasses, dark greens, weeds, coarse leaves, and succulents should make the bulk of a Star tortoise's diet
• grasses - e.g. bermuda, bluegrass, fescue, kikuyu, timothy
• weeds - e.g. clover, chickweed, dandelion, mallow, plantain
• leaves - e.g. grape, mulberry, strawberry
• succulents - e.g. opuntia cactus, sedum
• flowers - e.g. hibiscus, petunia, pansy, nasturtium, rose petals
• market foods - do not feed exclusively, as secondary foods only, ideally organic; e.g. chicory, endive, escarole, radicchio, squash (sparingly), spring mix salads without spinach, and dandelion greens; Yes, you can buy dandelions from the grocery store if you run out of weeds on your yard! :O)
• a diverse diet is most important, feed a variety of food items, rotate and/or mix foods
• for more complete food lists, see the plant links at the end of this page

Spineless cactus

For human culinary purposes, Opuntia ficus-indica (aka Nopal, Indian Fig Opuntia, Mission Cactus, Prickly Pear) is used most often. Nopal is native to Mexico, but missionaries planted it around most missions in early California. Thus, the common name Mission Cactus.

The spineless variety has tiny, nearly invisible barbed hairs called glochids which dig into skin. I wear thick kitchen gloves when handling spineless cactus pads. I scrub the pads with a brush under running water to remove most of glochids, but I often still get a few on my fingers. They tickle, burn, and hurt. You can try to remove glochids from your hands with duct tape, melted candle wax, glue, tweezers, or scrubbing with a nail brush.

Most tortoises seem to have a taste for cactus. My Sri Lankan and Burmese Star tortoises love it, too. :O)

yummy cactus

Commercial foods

Researchers are still trying to determine the ideal amount of protein in tortoise diets. Tortoise Trust mentions in one of their online nutrition articles (links below) that the safe upper protein limit in the diet would seem to be 7%. Wild tortoises typically eat about 2-6% plant protein on WET basis. Dr. Hartmut Wilke comments in his new book (My Turtle, 2009) that the ideal tortoise diet should contain 20% plant protein for adults and 24% for youngsters in DRY substance. Crude fiber content should be 12-30%.

Now, protein measured on wet basis cannot be directly compared to protein measured in dry substance. For example, the protein content of dandelions is 2.7% on wet basis and 18.7% in dry matter (Fife, 2007).

Ideally, a Star tortoise should eat a great variety of natural foods. They do not need any commercially prepared foods if they eat a balanced diet, but many tortoise owners like to feed them occasionally. Just like substrates, commercial diets are often debated among tortoise owners and breeders. Some feel it's beneficial to offer some commercial tortoise food as a complement to grasses and greens, while others feel it's totally unacceptable to feed prepared foods.

If your tortoise youngster is not fond of munching on greens that have vitamin powder on them, feeding prepared tortoise diets every so often is one way to provide additional vitamins and minerals to him. Commercial foods and dry grass products can also be handy in the winter time when tortoises cannot graze outside.

I feed Mazuri Tortoise Diet to my Sri Lankan and Burmese Star tortoises about once a week, or at least a couple of times a month, as a supplement. All my Stars love Mazuri. When they smell it, they come running! I have also given Zoo Med's Natural Grassland Tortoise Food to my Stars, but they aren't very fond of it.

Mazuri

• Mazuri Tortoise Diet by PMI Nutrition (Purina Mills) is a popular prepared food among US tortoise keepers
• crude protein min 15%, crude fiber max 18% (approx 14.6%)
• according to PMI, it was formulated for dry land herbivorous tortoises such as Galapagos, Gopher, and Sulcata tortoises
• the pellets look similar to dry dog food, but are softer, and they are practically odorless
• soak them for 1-2 min for little ones
• no artificial colors or flavors
• available in 1 lb and 25 lb bags
• this food is somewhat difficult to find locally because it's mostly sold by specialized feed and reptile supply stores, but you can usually reach several sellers through the link above

Natural Grassland

• Natural Grassland Tortoise Food by Zoo Med is a newer product
• crude protein min 9%, crude fiber max 26%
• according to Zoo Med, it was formulated for all grassland tortoises such as Sulcata, Russian, Greek, Leopard, Pancake, Greek, Hermann's, Desert, and Galapagos tortoises
• the pellets look and smell like compressed dry grass
• you can soak them very briefly
• no artificial colors, flavors, or preservatives
• available in four packing sizes from 8.5 oz to 50 lb
• Zoo Med also has another food formulated for forest tortoises

Other brands

• Other commercial tortoise foods include Fluker's Tortoise Diet, Pretty Pets Tortoise Food by Pretty Bird International, Rep-Cal Tortoise Food, T-Rex Tortoise Dry Formula, and Zeigler's Tortoise Monster Diet.

Hay cubes

• These cubes are made of dry, compressed grasses. For example, timothy hay cubes are a good choice for tortoises, You can find them in the rabbit and guinea pig aisles of pet stores

Supplements

If you are sure your tortoise's diet is spot on (hard to do), he may not need any vitamin supplementation. However, ensuring adequate calcium, mineral, and vitamin intake is important for Star tortoises, especially for young ones and egg-laying females.

Supplementation is another controversial issue in captive tortoise care. Some keepers believe daily supplementation with calcium and multivitamins is very important for growing tortoises. Others feel that over supplementation is a real danger and find supplements totally unnecessary. The rest fall somewhere in between. They use calcium and/or vitamin supplements, but not daily.

I use the phosphorous-free, ultra fine Rep-Cal calcium powder as my main calcium supplement (with vitamin D3 in the winter time and without during the summer). I usually sprinkle calcium powder on the young ones' food almost daily, or at least a few times a week.

I also keep cuttlebones in my indoor tortoise enclosures as a secondary calcium source. Some of my Stars nibble on them, and some don't. Cuttlebone is the hard, internal shell of a cuttlefish (a mollusc). Cuttlebone is mostly composed of aragonite, a naturally occurring form of calcium carbonate. You can find them in the bird department of your local pet store. Before feeding, I sometimes peel off the hard backing, especially for little ones. I find that soaking the cuttlebones first for 24 hrs makes the removal easier.

Some keepers also offer limestone flour (finely ground limestone powder) to their tortoises, especially for babies. You can find limestone flour in feed stores. It's sold as a calcium supplement for horses, sheep, and goats.

Old, odorless spice bottles made of glass work well as calcium and vitamin shakers. The screw-on caps keep them airtight. I hold the bottle sideways and just gently tap it with my finger. This allows me to sprinkle a very fine layer of the powder onto the greens.

I also sprinkle my tortoises' greens with Herptivite multivitamin powder once or twice a week. More often for the little ones, and less often for the older ones.

Tortoise poop

Tortoise poop should be dark in color and firm in texture. If your tortoise's feces are constantly green and loose, he may have internal parasites or he may be eating an incorrect diet. If you are interested, here a photo of my Burmese Star tortoise's poop. Dark and solid. :O)

Visitor comments

Share your experiences as a Star tortoise keeper. What has worked for you? What didn't? Post your observations on the visitor comments board or the guestbook.

I store my fresh cactus pads in containers filled with sandy soil.
Stored this way, the pads last forever, or until eaten. :O)

Growing lots of new 'bunny ears' for tortoises to eat
(Opuntia ficus-indica)