Such greedy little tortoises!

Russian tortoises are such little vultures when it comes to food! A few days ago, I treated the torts to some endive lettuce, and they just went WILD over it. In the course of being eaten, the lettuce wandered from the feeding rock through the water dish over to the basking area. My little male Roz was being such a little piggy that I ended up making a separate pile of food for him... hence he is not in these pics. 

In captivity, tortoises often get overgrown beaks because the food they are fed is too tender to wear the beak down. For this reason, I try to mostly feed weeds and leaves from my garden, and to include plenty of tougher plants that require more biting and chewing. A lot of the really 'soft' leafy greens are not as high in nutrients as others, so I only feed these as part of the varied dark leafy greens I offer.

The two young females are so funny.  Even when I give them their own pile(s) of food, they always want to eat off of the food the others are eating... preferably while climbing up and over each other.

Mila finally wandered off and hit the jackpot with her own pile of lettuce. She quietly munched away at it until NOTHING was left.

Good little vultures! Eat all your food, grow big and strong... and lay eggs for me this year, please!