Best Tortoise Food in the UK

The best food for a tortoise is a plant you picked or grew yourself. Nothing sold in a bag beats it, and nothing on this page changes that.

What follows is for the situations where that is not possible: no garden, a British winter, a species that needs hay year round, or a week when you simply have not had time to forage.

How we choose products

We do not test tortoise food, and we are not going to pretend otherwise.

What we do instead:

• Compare published guaranteed analyses, meaning declared crude fibre, protein, fat and starch
• Read ingredient lists in order, since ingredients are listed by weight and the first few are the product
• Assess species fit, because arid and tropical formulas are not interchangeable
• Check the claims against specialist and veterinary guidance, principally the Tortoise Trust, the British Chelonia Group and published research
• Report where sources disagree rather than picking the tidier answer

We do not accept payment for coverage or placement. Where we earn commission from a link, it is disclosed in our affiliate disclosure.

Fresh, dried and pellets compared

Best by situation

If you have a garden: seed

The cheapest and best option on this page. Twelve of the thirteen weeds and eight of the nine flowers in our records grow in Britain, including everything rated for regular feeding.

Look for a tortoise or wildflower seed mix, and check the species list before sowing. Pollinator mixes sold for bees frequently contain buttercup, which is on our avoid list. See grow your own tortoise food.

No garden: delivered fresh mixes

Specialist UK growers deliver fresh weed and flower mixes, some on subscription. This is forage you did not have to grow, and it is the least contentious thing you can buy.

It is also the most expensive way to feed a tortoise, so it suits keepers without outdoor space rather than those choosing convenience. See fresh tortoise food.

Every tortoise in winter: dried forage

The category most keepers skip, and the one that addresses the actual weakness in British captive diets.

Captive diets may run up to 80% below wild fibre levels according to Tortoise Trust estimates, and wild Testudo eat dry vegetation even when green material is available. Look for minimally processed material with long fibres intact, meaning recognisable leaves, flowers and seed heads rather than dust. See dried tortoise food.

Grazing species: hay, all year

For a Sulcata, leopard or Indian star tortoise, hay is not a winter product. It is most of the diet, permanently.

Buy timothy or meadow hay from the rabbit or horse trade rather than the reptile aisle. It is the same product, usually fresher and considerably cheaper by weight. Avoid alfalfa as the base on protein and oxalate grounds. See grass and hay for tortoises.

If you use pellets

Judge by the label rather than the brand. Of the products commonly available in the UK, Zoo Med Natural Grassland declares the highest fibre and the lowest protein, at 26% maximum fibre and 9% minimum protein, with suncured oat hay and timothy hay as the first two ingredients.

Mazuri’s LS formula declares a fibre range of 18 to 22% with timothy grass hay first and starch capped at 7%, which is more informative labelling than most.

The original Mazuri diet declares 15% protein and a fibre maximum of 18%, with ground corn and cane molasses high in the ingredient list, so it is a weaker choice for grazing and Mediterranean species even though it is widely stocked.

Figures are as declared by manufacturers at the time of writing, and formulations change. The full analysis is in tortoise pellets.

Ingredients to look for

Good signs:

• A named hay or grass as the first ingredient
• Fibre declared as a minimum or a range rather than only a maximum
• Protein at the lower end, particularly for grazing and Mediterranean species
• A declared starch cap
• A named species group on the packaging
• Recognisable whole plant material in dried mixes

Warning signs:

• Ground corn, cereals or soybean meal in the first few ingredients
• Cane molasses or added sugars
• Fibre declared only as a maximum
• “Tortoise food” with no species specified
• Fruit as a headline ingredient
• Fine, dusty dried mixes with no visible leaf structure

Products we would avoid

• Generic tortoise food with no species named. A Sulcata and a red-foot have almost nothing in common dietarily, so a product for both is formulated for neither.
• Fruit-based treats and sticks. Sugar for an animal that evolved without it. Edible flowers do the same job properly. See tortoise treats.
• Anything grain-led or molasses-sweetened, for herbivorous species.
• Alfalfa hay as a staple for grazing species, given the protein and oxalate concerns.
• Dried mixes sold as dust. If the fibre structure has been destroyed, the main benefit has gone with it.
• Complete-diet claims used as licence to stop foraging. No product replaces variety.

How commercial food fits a natural diet

Three things no bag can supply.

Variety. Wild tortoises sample around 200 plant species a year.

Fibre structure. Tortoises swallow leaves whole, and only the cut ends meet gut bacteria. Milling changes that fundamentally.

Seasonality. Wild diets change through the year and captive ones rarely do.

Use commercial food to cover the gaps a British year creates, and build the diet itself from weeds, flowers and, for grazing species, grass and hay. For the wider product picture see tortoise food products and tortoise food brands.

Product figures are taken from manufacturer-published analyses and ingredient lists. We do not test products, do not accept payment for coverage, and disclose commission in our affiliate disclosure. Sourcing standards are in our sources and review policy. This is husbandry information rather than clinical advice. See our veterinary disclaimer.

Last reviewed: September 2026.