Winter Feeding for Tortoises in the UK

From November to March, British forage disappears and most keepers fall back on the supermarket. That switch is where diets quietly deteriorate, because the thing that drops first is fibre and nobody notices it happening.

This page is about getting a tortoise through a British winter without that happening.

Which tortoises this applies to

Roughly speaking, if your tortoise is awake in January, this page is for you.

The winter problem, stated plainly

Of the 39 foods in our records that grow in Britain, almost all are seasonal weeds and flowers. Of the sixteen leafy greens, only two are UK-growable. So in winter the diet shifts from the category that supplies eleven of our fourteen everyday foods to the category that supplies one.

Supermarket greens are mostly water, low in fibre, and weaker on minerals. They are a reasonable stopgap and a poor foundation.

Winter food options

Supermarket greens that work

Rotate across plant families, not just across items. Kale, spring greens, pak choi and rocket in one week is a lot of the same compound. Alternate them with chicory-family greens and corn salad.

Dried forage

This is the part most keepers skip, and it is the part that solves the actual problem.

Dried herbs, flowers, grasses and seed heads carry the coarse, slow-fermenting fibre that supermarket greens lack. Wild Testudo eat a mixture of fresh and dry vegetation even when green material is available, so dry forage is normal food rather than an emergency substitute.

Look for minimally processed material that keeps long fibres intact. See dried tortoise food.

Growing indoors and under cover

• A cold frame or unheated greenhouse extends your season by weeks at both ends
• Corn salad and chickweed will keep going in cold conditions
• Deep pots on a windowsill of plantain or mallow will supplement a small tortoise
• Sow in February under cover to have something growing by March

See grow your own tortoise food.

Delivered fresh food

Specialist growers deliver fresh weed and flower mixes through winter. It is essentially forage you did not have to grow, and it beats the salad aisle. See fresh tortoise food.

Grazing species

Hay is not a winter substitute for a Sulcata or leopard tortoise. It is their normal food all year, and winter simply removes the outdoor grazing that supplemented it. Buy timothy or meadow hay from the rabbit or horse trade rather than the reptile aisle. See grass and hay for tortoises.

Fresh against dried

The answer is both. Fresh greens keep a tortoise eating; dried forage keeps the diet working. A winter diet of fresh greens alone is the classic January mistake.

If a tortoise refuses dried material at first, mix it in with fresh rather than switching outright, and give it weeks rather than days.

Overwintered against hibernating tortoises

Hibernating tortoises stop eating several weeks before they go under, so the gut can empty completely. Four to six weeks is the usual figure. Everything on this page applies only up to that point, then again on emergence. See feeding before hibernation.

Overwintered tortoises, meaning those kept awake, need a full winter feeding routine plus the heating and lighting to make it work. Keeping a tortoise awake without adequate warmth and UVB is worse than either hibernating it properly or overwintering it properly.

Juveniles are commonly overwintered in their first years, which means their most critical growth period coincides with the worst months for diet quality. Supplementation and dried forage matter most here. See baby tortoise food.

Temperature, light and appetite

Winter feeding fails as often on the environment as on the food.

• Digestion is temperature-dependent. A cool tortoise cannot ferment what it eats, so an overwintered animal needs proper basking temperatures or the food does nothing.
• UVB is not optional in winter. There is no useful UVB through a British window in January, and glass blocks it regardless. Without it, dietary calcium cannot be used.
• Appetite naturally falls with shorter days and lower temperatures. Some reduction is normal in an overwintered tortoise.
• Do not compensate with richer food. A tortoise eating less because it is cool needs warmth, not fruit.
• Feed in the morning, once the animal has warmed up.

See calcium and supplements.

Foods to avoid in winter

Everything on the main avoid list still applies. Three winter-specific traps:

• Fruit as a pick-me-up. A tortoise eating less in winter is responding to temperature and daylight, not asking for sugar.
• A single reliable green for months. Iceberg and cucumber are the usual culprits. Neither is dangerous, both are close to nutritionally empty, and a whole winter of them is a genuine problem.
• Increasing portions to compensate. Overwintered tortoises are less active, not hungrier.

A workable winter week

• Daily: a mixed bowl of two or three different greens, rotated across plant families
• Alongside: dried herbs and flowers available, or mixed into the fresh food
• Weekly: something from a different category, such as a delivered fresh mix or home-grown leaves from under cover
• Constantly, for grazing species: hay
• Throughout: calcium supplementation and working UVB

For the wider picture, see tortoise feeding guide and what do tortoises eat. To check a specific food, use the tortoise food checker.

Guidance here draws on the Tortoise Trust, the British Chelonia Group and published veterinary sources, checked as described in our sources and review policy. This is husbandry information and not a substitute for veterinary care. See our veterinary disclaimer.

Last reviewed: September 2026.