Why Feed Dried Flowers to Tortoises?

Fresh weeds should always be the foundation of a Mediterranean tortoise’s diet whenever they are available. However, carefully selected dried edible flowers can be an excellent way to add variety and encourage natural browsing behaviour throughout the year.

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In the wild, Mediterranean tortoises don’t eat the same plants every day. They wander through their habitat, browsing on a huge range of seasonal weeds, leaves and flowers as they become available. This natural variety is one of the reasons a diverse diet is so important.

Here in the UK, we simply can’t grow every edible Mediterranean flower all year round. Dried flowers allow us to offer a much wider range of safe edible plants than most gardens can provide, helping to recreate some of that natural variety.

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When sourced from reputable suppliers, high-quality dried flowers are harvested, carefully dried and stored to preserve their natural qualities. They also offer practical advantages. They can be stored for long periods, making it easy to provide safe edible flowers during the winter months or whenever fresh flowers are scarce.

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Another advantage is knowing exactly where your flowers have come from. Rather than collecting plants from roadsides or areas that may have been exposed to traffic pollution, pesticides or other contaminants, responsibly sourced dried flowers provide reassurance about their quality and origin.

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At The Tortoise Hotel®, we think of dried flowers as the pudding, not the main course. Fresh weeds should always come first whenever possible, with dried flowers adding variety, enrichment and encouraging natural browsing behaviour.

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They’re also incredibly useful for fussy tortoises. We’ve found that sprinkling a small amount of dried flowers over fresh weeds or Manuel’s Choice High Fibre Meadow Forage often encourages reluctant feeders to investigate new foods. This can be especially helpful when you’re trying to move a tortoise away from supermarket produce and back towards a more natural, high-fibre diet.

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Throughout the winter, when fresh weeds are less plentiful, dried flowers can be used alongside Manuel’s Choice High Fibre Meadow Forage, always accompanied by fresh weeds whenever they’re available.

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After spending more than a year researching edible flowers and observing the feeding preferences of the hundreds of tortoises that have stayed at The Tortoise Hotel®, one thing became very clear.

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No two dried flower mixes are the same.

The quality, freshness, aroma and purity of dried flowers can vary enormously, and tortoises certainly seem to notice the difference.

That’s why we spent so long researching suppliers, testing different flowers and refining our own blend before finally creating Manuel’s Secret Blend. It’s the same carefully selected mix that we proudly feed to the tortoises staying at The Tortoise Hotel® and to our own tortoises at home.

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Our philosophy remains simple:

Fresh weeds whenever possible. High fibre every day. Natural variety all year round.

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