In order to keep your baby tortoise in a healthy condition, here are some tips on what to feed them, stick to this and your tortoise will be very grateful…

Marginated Tortoises are herbivores and in its natural habitat it will feed mainly on weeds which grow in the wild and so this diet should be replicated in captivity. Its diet should consist of 75 to 80 percent green weeds such as (but not limited to) dandelions, including flowers, clover, sow thistle, hibiscus, plantain and wild weeds (but not buttercups as they are poisonous). As a treat or for providing vitamins on, tomatoes can be given in small quantities.

Should you not be able to obtain these weeds (e.g. winter time) the best lettuce to provide is romaine/kos lettuce (the darker green the better) as they most closely resemble the nutritional contents of dandelions (not iceberg due to its in appropriate nutritional makeup).

Watch out for pesticides and fertilizers if picking food from gardens or kerbsides, it is sensible therefore to wash any pickings.

This advice seems straightforward however, it is amazing how many tortoises do not receive such a simple diet and then run into health problems, keep it simple!