What Type of Berries Can Tortoises Eat?

Berries

• Berries that can be fed to tortoises include strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries and gooseberries. These berries provide your tortoise with vitamins such as vitamin B, vitamin C, antioxidants and fiber, which are nutrients that are less available in grasses and vegetation that make up the majority of the tortoise's diet.

Method

• Berries given to tortoises must be cut into tiny, bite-sized pieces to ensure the tortoise doesn't choke. These berries and other fruits or vegetables fed to tortoises can also be grated finely using a cheese grater. All foods given to tortoises should be dusted with a calcium and vitamin supplement to make sure the tortoise is getting adequate nutrition. Berries given to tortoises should be slightly soft and mushy rather than firm or unripe.

Importance

• Berries are a great addition to a tortoise's diet, but tortoises need a diet with very high amounts of grasses such as buffalo grass, fescue, Dallas grass, or couch grass and a variety of fresh greens like dandelion or kale. Fruit, including berries, should only make up about 10 percent of their overall diet, while vegetation should make up the other 90 percent. Berries should be considered a healthy treat for tortoises, who are primarily desert-dwelling animals that should be fed a diet that matches what they'd see in the wild.

Warning

• Wild berries should never be fed to tortoises unless they have been carefully washed, so that they don't contain any pesticides or insecticides. The berries must be positively identified as either strawberries, blackberries, raspberries or gooseberries. Other types of berries could be poisonous. Berries that are known to be toxic or fatally poisonous to tortoises include Daphne berries, elderberries, baneberry, Christmas berry, China berry, mistletoe berries and moon seed berries.

  While not technically berries, cherries are another small, easily-available fruit that is also poisonous to tortoises.