2 replies to this topic

[Chris2112]

I live in Florida, and dollarweed is as prevalent here as sunshine and retired northerners. Now that I've trained my turtles to finally eat greens, I'd like to know if people on here feed their cooters and/or YBS dollarweed. It'd be real nice to be able to pick this weed in my back yard and feed them like nature intended, but I don't want to make them sick if it's not good for them.

I seem to find some sporadic thoughts on this, some people saying they eat it in a salad (blech) but that doesn't mean turtles should eat it. I've also seen people say they feed it to their tortoises, bur again, that's not a turtle.

So, can I feed it to my turts?

[Cheloniphile]

The only potential problem is not with the dollarweed aka pennywort itself, it is with potential herbicides such as atrazine that may have been used to eradicate or control it.  This plant spreads not only by seed but also by root-like rhizome structures and by tubers.  For it to be growing like a weed (pun intended) your soil must be very wet and very sandy.  Unfortunately that allows herbicides to be carried from one place to another - so someone trying to eradicate / control several hundred feet away could be sending herbicide to your location.

Before gathering and feeding, I'd suggest contacting a local university or water testing organization to see what toxin levels, if any, are present.

This is true of any lawn or woodland edge plants anywhere in the country.  If my neighbor is spraying for dandelion control I wouldn't want to feed my turts dandelions I picked from my lawn within 70 feet of the property line, for example.

But yes, the plants are edible, digestible and non-toxic to your turtles.

Paul (Cheloniphile)

Edited by Cheloniphile, 22 December 2011 - 10:04 PM.

[RachelDBT]

My aunt and uncle used to have tortoises in their yard and red eared sliders and I think yellow belly cooters in a pond in the yard on the west coast of Florida.  They fed all of them pennywort all the time.  Like you say, it grows everywhere.  I don't know what their practice was for fertilizer and insecticides but they never seemed to have a problem with their turtles who ate the stuff like it was candy.
Rachel.