Pancake tortoise diet

A healthy African pancake tortoise is a well fed Pancake tortoise a wise man once said? Feed a wide variety of dark leafy greens and veggies.  Our pancakes here at our tortoise farm eat everything including collard greens, mustard greens, squash, bell peppers, romaine, spring mix, shredded carrots, tomato and more.  Mixing Mazuri tortoise chow into your chopped greens mixture after it was soaked and softened ads protein and vitamin D3.

Baby Pancake tortoise for sale – water

Like all living things, water is important for your new baby pancake tortoise.  Always provide clean, fresh water for your new African pancake tortoise for sale.  Be sure to use a shallow dish, especially for baby African pancake tortoises.  You will also find your new tortoise soaking in the water dish, and often also pooping in it.  Cleaning your water dish a couple of times a week is sufficient, however, change the water daily.

African Pancake tortoise for sale

Pancakes are one of the few arid habitat tortoises that thrive in vivariums, although a well set-up tortoise table would be fine for them as well. They need a good source of UVB and a basking area large enough for them to expose their whole shells to the hotspot, rather than just a small area. They are also happy to live in groups, unlike many other species.

Feeding is relatively simple for them as long as you follow a few common sense rules. They do very well on a weed based diet, high in fiber and calcium, low in protein and phosphorous. Avoid fruit, and any greens high in oxalic acid (such as spinach) or goitrogens – chemicals that cause gout (most of the brassica family, cabbages, kale and so on). These food items are fine as a treat, but should be avoided on a regular basis. Plain calcium should be dusted on every feed, with a good quality multivitamin/multimineral powder added twice a week. Pancake tortoises feed enthusiastically, and seem to prefer to eat in the morning; they like to spend most of the day tucked up in their hides, but once they’re settled they will emerge to investigate whenever anyone comes near their home.

African pancake tortoise habitat

A word of warning – pancake tortoises are phenomenal climbers! They are adapted to spend their days scrambling around huge piles of sun-warmed rock, so any open-topped enclosure must have either a large overhanging lip or a mesh cover. Their flexible shell and long limbs allow them to flip themselves over much faster than more normal shaped species, another adaptation to help them cope with the inevitable falls that come with their acrobatic lifestyle.

Because of their unique shape, female pancakes lay one – or very occasionally two – eggs at a time, although they can do this up to five times in a season. They have an extremely variable incubation period; three to six months!  If you are looking for a baby pancake tortoise, check out our pancake tortoises for sale here.

Pancake Tortoise General information

  • Common name: Pancake Tortoise
  • Scientific Name: Malacochersustornieri
  • Location: Kenya and Tanzania
  • Habitat (wild): Arid environment, stone outcroppings called kopjes
  • Captive environment: Table or vivarium
  • Preferred temperature range:daytimehot spot of 40℃ under the basking light, background ambient of 35℃, cool end of 25℃. Temperature can drop to 20℃ at night
  • UVB: 10% or 12% tube, mercury vaporor metal halide bulb
  • Substrate: Soil based
  • Lifespan: 35 -75 years

pancake tortoise care

pancake tortoise

pancake tortoise for sale african pancake tortoises for sale

pan cake tortoise for sale

pancake tortoise for sale

pancake tortoise care

African Pancake Tortoise

© 1998-2024 Tortoise Town * All Baby tortoises for sale & turtles for sale from our tortoise farm under 4" are sold for educational or scientific purposes.