Why We Created Manuel’s Choice™
This was never supposed to become a business.
If somebody had told me a few years ago that I would one day be producing a natural food for Mediterranean tortoises, I would have laughed.
That was never the plan.
The Tortoise Hotel has always been about education first. For over thirty years I’ve been fascinated by Mediterranean tortoises, learning from every animal that has passed through my hands and constantly questioning whether we could do better.
The research that eventually became Manuel’s Choice™ wasn’t driven by a desire to sell a product. It wasn’t even driven by the idea of starting a new business.
It was driven by concern.
Every year, hundreds of tortoises arrive at the Tortoise Hotel for boarding, hibernation and rehabilitation. Every single one teaches us something. They arrive with different personalities, histories, and levels of care.
Sadly, one thing kept appearing again and again.
Poor nutrition.
The owners weren’t the problem
One thing became obvious very quickly. Most owners loved their tortoises. They genuinely wanted to do the very best for them. The problem wasn’t a lack of love. It was a lack of reliable information.
For decades, people have been told conflicting advice by pet shops, garden centres, internet forums and social media. One website recommends supermarket salads. Another says pellets. Somebody else recommends fruit. Others insist vegetables are perfectly acceptable every day. It’s hardly surprising that owners become confused.
Over the years I’ve watched the same cycle repeat itself countless times. A new owner buys a tortoise, asks for advice, receives well-meaning but inaccurate information and spends years believing they are doing exactly the right thing. Nobody intended to cause harm. They didn’t know any different. That is why education has always been, and always will be, completely free. If helping somebody’s tortoise means they never buy anything from us, then we’ve still achieved something worthwhile.
Then I started questioning my own tortoises
Here’s the interesting part. Even though my own tortoises enjoy a varied diet of fresh weeds, flowers and natural grazing, I still found myself asking difficult questions.
Could I improve their nutrition?
Could I increase their fibre intake even further?
Were they eating enough long-stem fibre throughout the entire year? The more scientific research I read, the more convinced I became that fibre sits at the heart of Mediterranean tortoise health. In the wild, tortoises don’t spend their days eating soft lettuce leaves. They wander for hours, browsing across dozens of different grasses, weeds and wildflowers, consuming coarse, fibrous vegetation that keeps the digestive system working exactly as nature intended.
That isn’t always easy to replicate in the UK. A long dry summer can leave gardens looking bare. Winter offers very little natural grazing. Many people don’t have safe weeds growing nearby. Even dedicated owners can struggle.
So I began looking for a natural solution.
Finding the right forage
Finding the right forage wasn’t nearly as simple as buying a bag of dried grass I wanted something that genuinely reflected what Mediterranean tortoises evolved to eat.
I spent months comparing products, reading ingredients, studying nutritional information and understanding how different meadow plants contribute to fibre diversity.
Eventually I found exactly what I had been searching for.
A beautifully diverse high-fibre meadow forage containing over sixty naturally occurring grasses and herbs. No artificial ingredients.
No unnecessary fillers. Simply a remarkable range of natural plants working together. It immediately became part of the feeding routine for my own tortoises.
Then something unexpected happened
There was just one problem. Some tortoises looked at it……and completely ignored it. That didn’t surprise me. Tortoises can be incredibly suspicious of change.
New smells.
New textures.
New flavours.
Just like people, they often need time to accept something unfamiliar.
So rather than trying to disguise the forage with artificial flavours, I looked towards nature again.
The birth of Manuel’s Secret Blend™
Flowers.
Not because they are magical.
Not because they somehow replace weeds.
Simply because they encourage curiosity.
After experimenting with different Mediterranean-friendly flowers, I discovered a combination that many tortoises found irresistible when soaked alongside the forage.
The water became rich in natural colour and aroma.
The whole meal became more inviting.
Many reluctant tortoises began investigating their food instead of walking away.
That simple discovery eventually became Manuel’s Secret Blend™.
One of the first changes we noticed
Something else began to change. Not overnight. But gradually. One of the first things we noticed wasn’t the shell.
It wasn’t growth. It was the droppings. As the amount of natural fibre increased, the droppings became much more like those produced by Mediterranean tortoises eating a naturally fibrous diet. They were well formed, full of visible plant fibre and exactly what we’d hoped to see from a healthy digestive system.
Of course, droppings are influenced by many things, including hydration, temperature and the rest of the diet.
But seeing those consistent changes gave us confidence that increasing natural fibre was moving us in the right direction.
Suitable from the very first mouthful
People often ask whether Manuel’s Choice™ is only suitable for adult tortoises. The answer is no.
As soon as a hatchling has begun naturally feeding, Manuel’s Choice™ can be introduced alongside fresh weeds.
Because it is simply a natural meadow forage, it isn’t designed for a particular age.
Good nutrition begins from the very first mouthful.
Whether your tortoise is a tiny hatchling just beginning life or a thirty-year-old adult, the digestive system has evolved to process natural, fibrous plants.
That principle never changes.
Why we keep the flowers separate
People often ask why we don’t simply mix everything together. The answer is actually very simple. The forage provides the fibre. The flowers provide variety, colour and aroma. Some tortoises need more flowers than others.
Some owners prefer to use flowers only occasionally.
Keeping them separate allows you complete control while ensuring every meal can be prepared fresh, just as we do here at the Tortoise Hotel.
We still believe weeds are best
If your garden is full of safe weeds all year round, that’s wonderful. Keep feeding them. Nothing we’ve created is intended to replace nature. Manuel’s Choice™ was created to support natural feeding, not replace it.
It’s there for the winter months, for drought, for busy lives and for those days when gathering enough suitable weeds simply isn’t possible.
It exists because we wanted the same reassurance for our own tortoises that we now offer to yours.
Manuel says…
“Funny, really. My human spent years trying to make my dinner healthier. I spent years pretending not to like it. Then she added flowers… and suddenly I forgot I was supposed to be fussy. Humans call it research.
I call it making my dinner prettier.”
