Cactus Specifically for Tortoise
Whilst having a google a few months back I came across a few articles on feeding cacti to Tortoises (I think they're called Turtles in America)
Being a cactus grower I was interested in these, it turned out that Tortoise keepers were having problems sourcing cacti that hadn't been treated with pesticides. Most cacti growers at some stage will have problems with both Mealybugs and Spidermites. Both of these are big problems and can distort and kill off cacti. Mealybugs love cacti, especially Opuntias or Prickly Pears. So most commercial cactus collections, including cacti destined for sale, will have been sprayed with pesticides.
Having given this some thought, I realised that although I have sprayed the stock that I have for sale, I've never sprayed the beds in the ornamental cactus house. There is no doubt about this as I built the cactus house myself in 2021.
In the beds are two large Opuntias, Austrocylindropuntia subulata and Opuntia quimilo. Both ideal Tortoise food plants and both with ample cutting material available to start a pesticide free cactus plant concern.
I hope to have these plants available in a few months time. Once they are in cultivation it will be a lot easier to produce more from the prunings of the first ones (they won't all sell at once unless there's a stampede of very hungry Tortoises )
I've also put my feelers out for a cutting of one of the Galapagos Opuntia (Opuntia galapageia) which is one of the plants eaten by the famous Giant Tortoises of the Galapagos Islands.
en.wikipedia.org
Galapagos Opuntias are hard to obtain as seed or cuttings can no longer be taken from the Islands. Out of the 200 species of Opuntia only 6 occur in the Galapagos Islands :
Opuntia echios
Opuntia megasperma
Opuntia galapageia
Opuntia helleri
Opuntia insularis
Opuntia saxicola
It's very unlikely that we will source the other five Galapagos Opuntias so lets hope no one has a complete collection of Galapagos Tortoises.
These are the two species that we are starting the range off with. We have many other Opuntia species but most are not very "user friendly" producing glochids which are tiny spines that can be real irritants to skin and especially eyes (some may become airborne if the plant is disturbed)
Austrocylindropuntia subulata
Eve's Needle Cactus.
When planted in a bed, this will grow at about a foot a year and produce side branches. The stems themselves are very fleshy but have sheathed spines which would need carefully removing. For feeding Tortoises it's best to use the vestigial leaves which are very fleshy and make a tasty treat.
Opuntia quimilo
This is a very smooth Opuntia that doesn't have glochids and only has the odd single spine on the pads. Once established they can produce sizeable plants with large fleshy pads. Depending on the size of your Tortoise it may be best to cut the pads into sections, blanch and freeze them.
These pictures are of "Buzz" our first Tortoise customer enjoying a taste of our Eve's Needle cactus leaves. Picture's from the Tortoise's human - Jake Theoff.
Opuntias should only be given sparingly to Tortoises as too much will cause a bad tummy and no one likes runny Tortoise poo, especially the Tortoise. Don't plant them where they can get to them, only feed them small amounts as an addition to their diet. In the wild they will seek out young growth so taking off pads to produce new growth will be ideal.
We must stress that we only produce pesticide free plants for you to grow on as treats for your Tortoise, we are not wholesale pet food suppliers. We are not doing this to make a profit, as a stand alone business idea it wouldn't work as it's self defeating. Once you have a few of these plants you can propagate enough to supplement your Tortoise's diet. The whole idea of this is to provide pesticide free plants for Tortoise lovers. This will work fine alongside our existing cactus sales and will just add another aspect to the business. Besides which, we like Tortoises.
I've made a couple of videos explaining this enterprise, the first one about what and how much to feed, and the second about the cultivation methods
Five months later and we're now ready to sell the plants. These are all pesticide free.