When it comes to food, a tortoise will usually eat anything that is in front of them, but this doesn’t mean that all they will eat is actually good for them. If something seems edible they will eat it, without thinking too much about the aftereffects. So what will happen if a tortoise eats cat food, will it get sick, or is it actually healthy? Let’s find out.
Tortoises shouldn’t eat cat food. Cat food usually contains a lot of proteins and fat, which are not recommended for a tortoise. Tortoises need a diet made out of fruits, vegetables, and plants, which can be supplemented with tortoise pellets, which are very different from cat food.
Cats are carnivorous, which means their main diet is full of meat, fat, and proteins, and even if not all cat food is 100% meat, it usually has a lot of proteins and fat. On the other hand, tortoises are vegetarian, they don’t eat meat of any kind, and their diet usually has a moderate amount of proteins and little to no fat
What Happens if Your Tortoise Eats Cat Food
If your tortoise eats cat food by mistake once or twice, there is no problem, but if they do so they will soon start to suffer from health problems, due to the unbalanced diet.
The only way to correct this is to completely change the diet of your tortoises by giving them fruits and vegetables. But not all fruits and vegetables are good for them. In fact, some of them are more dangerous than any cat food.
So, let’s take a look at what fruits and vegetables you should be giving your tortoise, and which you should avoid.
Things to Know About Tortoises And Fruits
All fruits contain calcium and phosphorus. And depending on the calcium to phosphorus ratio, a fruit can either be healthy or dangerous for a tortoise. So let’s take a look at what calcium does for tortoises, what phosphorus does for them, and what is good calcium to phosphorus ratio is.
Calcium is essential for every animal in this world that has bones. And since the shell of a tortoise is made out of bones, calcium is even more important for tortoises than for any other animal. Fruits are one of the main sources of calcium that a tortoise has, so making sure that you feed them vegetables with high amounts of calcium is important.
For humans phosphorus is a very important mineral that helps filter waste, repair tissue and cells, etc. But for tortoises phosphorus is not that great. Phosphorus is what gives tortoise shells a little flexibility, which is great because this little extra flexibility makes them more resistant to bites and other types of impact. But too much phosphorus can also make the shell a lot softer, and as a result much weaker when it comes to defending the tortoise from predators.
In short, we can say that calcium is great for tortoises and phosphorus is not so great for tortoises in high quantities.
Most fruits have a calcium to phosphorus ratio, this ratio can be 1:1, 2:3, 5:2, 1:2, etc.
A 1:1 ratio means that the amount of calcium is equal, or almost equal to the amount of phosphorus. So a vegetable with this ratio is not that great for tortoises, but it’s not harmful either. But if possible such a vegetable should be avoided.
A 1:2 calcium to phosphorus ratio is bad, there are not many vegetables with this ratio, so don’t worry too much about them. Just remember that if a vegetable has more potassium than calcium you should keep it away from your tortoise.
A 2:1 ratio is great, and this is what you should be aiming for. If the ratio goes higher it’s ok, but ideally, this is the ratio that you are looking for.
Most common fruits have a good or at least acceptable calcium to phosphorus ratio. And even if your tortoise eats fruit with a lot of phosphorus once, there will be no problem.
Here is a short list of some fruits that have a high phosphorus content and should be avoided in large quantities:
- Raisin
- Prune
- Date
- Avocado
- Guava
- Banana
- Coconut
- Kiwi
- Persimmon
- Cantaloupe
- Apricot
- Pomegranate
- Honeydew
- Nectarine
- Mulberry
- Peach
Things to Know About Tortoises And Vegetables
The same thing is true for vegetables. Just like fruits, vegetables have a calcium to phosphorus ratio, and some of them should be given only very rarely and in small quantities, and some of them should be avoided completely.
So, to keep things short and simple, here is a list of some of the most common vegetables and their Calcium to Phosphorus ratio:
| Collards | 14.5:1 |
| Spinach, Mustard | 7.5:1 |
| Turnip Greens | 4.5:1 |
| Lambsquarters | 4.3:1 |
| Dill Weed | 3.2:1 |
| Beet Greens | 3.0:1 |
| Dandelion Greens | 2.8:1 |
| Chinese Cabbage (Pak Choi) | 2.8:1 |
| Lettuce, Loose-leaf | 2.7:1 |
| Mustard Greens | 2.4:1 |
| Parsley | 2.4:1 |
| Kale | 2.4:1 |
| Chicory Greens | 2.1:1 |
| Spinach | 2.0:1 |
| Watercress | 2.0:1 |
| Cabbage | 2.0:1 |
| Endive (Escarole) | 1.9:1 |
| Celery | 1.6:1 |
| Purslane | 1.5:1 |
| Cilantro | 1.4:1 |
| Lettuce, Butterhead (Boston, Bibb) | 1.4:1 |
| Okra | 1.3:1 |
| Swiss Chard | 1.1:1 |
| Turnip | 1.1:1 |
| Squash (Winter, all varieties) | 1.0:1 |
| Green Beans | 1.0:1 |
| Lettuce, Romaine | 0.8:1 |
| Sweet Potato | 0.8:1 |
| Rutabaga | 0.8:1 |
| Broccoli | 0.7:1 |
| Cucumber (with skin) | 0.7:1 |
| Endive, Belgian (Witloof Chicory) | 0.7:1 |
| Carrots | 0.6:1 |
| Squash (Summer, all varieties) | 0.6:1 |
| Brussels Sprouts | 0.6:1 |
| Cauliflower | 0.5:1 |
| Kohlrabi | 0.5:1 |
| Pumpkin | 0.5:1 |
| Alfalfa Sprouts | 0.5:1 |
| Parsnips | 0.5:1 |
| Peppers, Green | 0.5:1 |
| Peppers, Red | 0.5:1 |
| Sweet Potato Leaves | 0.4:1 |
| Beets | 0.4:1 |
| Asparagus | 0.4:1 |
| Tomato | 0.2:1 |
| Corn, White | 0.02:1 |
And remember, a 1:1 ratio means that the amount of calcium is equal, or almost equal to the amount of phosphorus. So a vegetable with this ratio is not that great for tortoises, but it’s not harmful either. But if possible such a vegetable should be avoided.
A 1:2 calcium to phosphorus ratio is really bad, there are not many vegetables with this ratio, so don’t worry too much about them. Just remember that if a vegetable has more potassium than calcium you should keep it away from your tortoise.
A 2:1 ratio is great, and this is what you should be aiming for, if the ratio goes higher it’s ok, but ideally this is the ratio that you are looking for.
Now, that we covered what you should feed your tortoise, how often you should feed your tortoise.
How Often You Should Feed Your Tortoise
This part is really simple, but it will vary depending on the age of your tortoise. If your tortoise, adult tortoises have a different schedule than juveniles, and juveniles have a different schedule than baby tortoises.
The life stage of a tortoise is not always determined by the age itself, but rather by the size. Overall, a tortoise is considered a baby when it’s small enough to be held in the palm, in the case of most tortoise species, this stage lasts for about 6 months.
Juvenile tortoises are tortoises that are still growing. And adult tortoises are tortoises that have reached their maximum size. So if you search on google for the species of your tortoise and then type average size you should get an idea if your tortoise is an adult or a juvenile. (If your tortoise still needs a couple of inches to reach its full size you can consider it an adult.)
Now let’s get back to how often you should feed your tortoise.
If your tortoise is an adult you should feed it once every 3 days. And this will look like this.
If your tortoise is a juvenile you should feed it once every 2 days. Here is how that will look.
If your tortoise is still a baby you should feed it every day. This is how a feeding schedule will look.
Missing a feeding day shouldn’t be a problem for any tortoise, regardless of its age. In the wild tortoises can go for weeks, even months without food, and they are fine, so a small delay shouldn’t be a problem.
Final Thoughts
Tortoises shouldn’t eat cat food, instead, they should eat fruits and vegetables. Cat food contains meat and a lot of proteins, which can actually harm a tortoise, and it lacks a lot of the vitamins and nutrients that a tortoise needs.
If your tortoises eat cat food by mistake there is no reason to worry, why cat food is not good for them, it won’t have any bad effect if it happened just once.
I hope this article answered all of your questions, but in case there is anything else that you would like to know, don’t hesitate to leave your question in the comment section below, I regularly check the comment sections and answer all the questions.
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