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Feeding spined cactus pass to tortoise

B

bigjej

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Every now and then I feed my adult RFT cactus pass from the local market but it's a real PITA to manually extract the spines. I don't need enough to make it worth purchasing spineless pads. If I feed them with the spines in, would the tortoise manage or am I risking injury?

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That was my question, whether there is a risk or not. I don't want to risk it if it is a potential problem. After posting it I found the local produce store selling small bags of chopped cactus pad !

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If you live in the southwest the stuff grows like a weed. Take a cactus pad and drop it on the ground or bury halfway in sandy soil and you are done.
You can usually walk around the neighborhood and find pieces fallen off people's cactus. It helps to know the Spanish word for cactus is nopales.
 
As I read it, the OPs problem is not lack of available cactus, it's lack of de-spined cactus, and the time it takes to remove the spines.

I presume the chopped cactus you have now found is de-spined so has solved your problem?

Otherwise I think it's a matter of risk acceptability - obviously no one is de-spining cactus for tortoises in the wild, so they must have some ability to chomp on spiny cactus without harm. But then again wild animals get injured in the wild too, and mostly we aren't prepared to let that happen to pets, so we sanitise their food and remove that risk.

It's like the cooked chicken bone question - we are told that we shouldn't feed cooked chicken bones to our cats and dogs because they can splinter and cause injury, so we don't do it. However stray dogs take chicken bones from our dustbins and eat them apparently without harm - but we have to assume that not all of them make it to the ripe old age we'd like Rover to attain.
 
Calaveras that explains why the chopped cactus were labeled nopalittos!

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Helen you are correct. The problem is avoided with the chopped cacti though this is the first time I've seen them. How are they used in Mexican cuisine?

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I take a blowtorch and burn the spines off and that saves my fingers as well. Only takes a few seconds.

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You can also take a dry sponge and use it to rub down the pads while wearing gloves.

The tortoises probably do not care about the glochids anyway. When I infrequently (once or twice a year) provide cactus pads, I do not bother with glochid removal. I think their viscous saliva tends to help deal with the prevention of a perpendicular angle when the glochids are bitten and ingested along with the rest of the pad.
 
nickolasanastasiou said:
The tortoises probably do not care about the glochids anyway... I think their viscous saliva tends to help deal with the prevention of a perpendicular angle when the glochids are bitten and ingested along with the rest of the pad.
Click to expand...

Precisely, the glochids are absolutely no harm to your RFT, I've raised some hatchlings on a diet primarily consisting of Prickly pear pads always with the glochids, hell you can even leave an entire pad in there to wear the beak down a bit. I like to think of it as extra nutrients :hehe:
 
You can swing by my house and have as much as you want.....I think the new "leaves" don't have spikes, or if they do, they are soft.

Dave
 
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