A-Z List of edible plants for tortoises

Time to read: 2 Minutes

Tortoises, like humans, thrive best when fed a varied diet.

This list is mainly applicable for both Meditteranean and Russian tortoises who should be fed a diet of strictly weeds, flowers and plants (not fruits or Industrial pellets) but can benefit all species of tortoises as well.

I have compiled a quick A-Z list, and whilst it is certainly not exhaustive, here, I prioritised plants that are either freely accessible as wild flowers growing in alleyways, parks, local fields and forestland, or they are easy to grow as either house plants or garden plants.

The purpose of this list is to show that there is a lot of variety available that are healthy options for a tortoise’s diet.

Sometimes a little inspiration or knowledge is all that is needed to understand what foods are not only safe to feed, but nutritious.

Feeding through the alphabet can be a surefire way to ensure your tortoise is being fed a good variety of food.

List notes

Emoji Key and definitions according to The Tortoise Table

💚 Safe feed – Can be fed daily and make up a large percentage of a tortoise’s varied diet.

💛 Moderate feed – Can be fed in small amounts daily, or a couple of times a week.

I have not included any “feed sparingly” or “Do not feeds” from the Tortoise Table in this list.

Identifying plants

The images accompanying each plant are intended for illustrative purposes only. Where possible, I have used my own images that I have taken of the plant, but these images should not be used as a identification guide. For this, it is best to use a plant identification app like Picture This or Google Lens and then cross reference the plant to the Tortoise Table (linked above).

Aster 💚