Having a correct and healthy diet for your red-footed tortoise is perhaps the most critical part of its care. A correct diet ensures that your red-footed tortoise develops properly, stays strong, stays healthy, and even determines the quality of the turtle’s colors.

Basically, a red-footed tortoise’s diet can be divided into three parts: green leafy vegetables, fruits, and supplements.

Also remember that the list below is not complete, but rather provides an accurate guide to your turtle’s diet.

Green leafy vegetables

Green leafy vegetables are a very important staple in your turtle’s diet and should be the majority of your turtle’s diet due to the nutrients they contain. Some basic leafy greens that you would like to include in your turtle’s diet are romaine lettuce, collard greens, mustard greens, kale, and occasionally spinach.

Fruits

Fruits are another important part of your red-footed tortoise’s diet. These fruits include tomatoes, strawberries, blue berries, black berries, apples, melons, papaya, and bananas.

Fruits should only be fed two to three times a week due to how sweet they are. If a red-footed tortoise is fed too much fruit, that is all it will want to eat and it will not receive the vital nutrients that come from green leafy vegetables.

Supplements

Supplements are used to improve your turtle’s diet, most importantly a calcium supplement. The calcium supplement is important because it ensures a healthy and strong development of the bones and the shell. These calcium supplements can be purchased at any pet store with a reptile section or online. Lightly sprinkle your turtle’s food with the calcium supplement on a semi-regular basis.

Foods to Avoid

A common mistake new turtle owners make is buying and feeding pellet food to their turtles. Pellet foods do not provide essential nutrients to your tortoise’s diet and they also contain grain products that are the cause of pyramidal tortoise shell formation.

Also, all other human foods should not be provided to your tortoise except those mentioned in this article and other sources.

Water

It is also important that you keep a constant source of water available for your red-footed tortoise. I keep a shallow water dish in my turtle’s habitat. Make sure the plate is large enough for your turtle to fit in because it can double as a skillet for soaking.

Make sure to replace the water regularly because dirt and other waste products get into it regularly.