Red-Footed Tortoise Diet: Feeding a Forest Tortoise

Leaves, flowers and fruit, with fungi and a small amount of animal matter. This is the one commonly kept tortoise for which fruit is normal food rather than an occasional indulgence.

If you have read our other species guides, most of the fruit warnings on them do not apply here. Chelonoidis carbonarius is a tropical forest tortoise from South America, and it is built differently from a Mediterranean or savannah species.

Everything about protein, however, still needs care. Being a partial omnivore is not the same as being able to handle whatever a keeper puts down.

Why red-foot diets differ

Field research in Brazil gives a clear picture. Red-footed tortoises feed primarily on fruit during the wet season and switch to flowers during the dry season. Across the year they also take living and dead foliage, stems, fungi, carrion, and even soil, sand and small pebbles, the last of which may act as an abrasive aid to digestion.

In one Pantanal study, fruit appeared in the droppings of every male sampled and three quarters of the females. Males eat more fruit than females across several studies.

They are also one of very few tortoises genuinely adapted to eating fungi, which for most species would be an odd and unwelcome item.

Two practical points follow. Humidity matters enormously for this species, more than for any other on this site, and diet cannot compensate for a dry enclosure. And the diet is genuinely varied rather than dominated by one food group, which means a captive red-foot fed the same three items every week is being underfed in the sense that matters.

Plant foods

Leaves and flowers are the backbone even in a diet that includes fruit.

Regular: plantain, sow thistle, mallow, hawkbit, bristly oxtongue, nipplewort, hibiscus, viola and pansy, violet, calendula, campanula, corn salad, mint, thyme.

In rotation: dandelion, clover, chickweed, nettle, bramble and blackberry leaves, kale, spring greens, collard greens, turnip greens, watercress, rocket, chicory, endive, pak choi, rose petals, cornflower, nasturtium.

Soft vegetables: courgette, marrow, pumpkin, squash and bell pepper sit a band higher for this group than for any other, at moderation rather than sparingly.

Grass is not a significant food for forest tortoises. It sits at moderation, the same as for Mediterranean species, and for the same reason: they are not adapted to handle it in quantity.

Use the food checker with a tropical species selected, since roughly twenty-five foods carry a different verdict for this group than for the others.

Fruit

Here is where honest guidance gets more complicated than either “fruit is fine” or “fruit is dangerous”.

The Tortoise Trust’s seasonal model for this species puts fruit and flowers at around 70% of the wet season diet, dropping to roughly 40% fruit plus 25% flowers in the dry season, with grasses and vegetables and a small fungi and protein component making up the rest.

Those figures describe wild fruit. Wild forest fruit is fibrous, comparatively low in sugar and eaten alongside soil, leaf litter and everything else on the forest floor. Supermarket fruit has been bred for sweetness and softness over centuries, and it behaves quite differently in a tortoise gut.

Our own records therefore place fruit at moderation rather than regular for this group. That is not a contradiction of the Trust’s model, it is an adjustment for what is actually in a British fruit bowl. Fed heavily, cultivated fruit causes loose droppings, weight gain and digestive upset in red-foots as readily as in other species.

Practical version: fruit belongs in this diet several times a week, in real amounts rather than token slivers, chosen for lower sugar where possible and always alongside leaves and flowers rather than instead of them. See can tortoises eat fruit for how the groups compare.

Protein in context

Wild red-foots eat carrion when they find it, and this is often quoted as licence to feed pet food. It is worth looking at where their protein actually comes from.

Analyses of forest plant material give young leaves around 24% protein on a dry matter basis, flowers around 18%, mature leaves around 13% and fungi around 11%. A tortoise eating leaves, flowers and mushrooms is already taking in meaningful protein. Carrion is opportunistic scavenging on top of that, not the foundation.

Our food records list dog food, cat food, meat and mealworms as do not feed for every group, including tropical species. That is a deliberate position and worth explaining. Processed pet food is nothing like occasional wild carrion in composition or quantity, and it is the single most common route to protein overload in captive tortoises of every kind. Excess protein in a red-foot causes the same problems it causes elsewhere: accelerated growth, pyramiding, and strain on the kidneys.

Fungi are the more sensible way to cover the same ground, and they are genuinely part of this species’ natural diet. Our records mark mushrooms as species dependent for exactly this reason, since they are unsuitable for Mediterranean and grazing tortoises but not for forest ones.

If you want to include an animal protein component along the lines of the Trust’s model, discuss appropriate sources and frequency with a reptile-experienced vet rather than reaching for the dog bowl.

Foods to avoid

Dog food, cat food, meat and mealworms, for the reasons above. Bread and dairy. Peas, beans and pulses. Tomato, spinach, rhubarb, celery and parsley for oxalates. Cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower. Potato, sweetcorn, onion, garlic and avocado.

Citrus is worth singling out. It is acidic and poorly suited to tortoises generally, and the fact that this species eats tropical fruit does not extend to oranges and lemons.

The full list with reasoning is at tortoise foods to avoid.

Feeding variety

Variety is more important for this species than for any other covered on this site, because the wild diet spans fruit, flowers, foliage, fungi and animal matter across two distinct seasons.

A useful test: if the last fortnight consisted of the same leafy greens plus a slice of the same fruit, the diet is too narrow regardless of how safe each item is. Rotate the plant material, vary the fruit, include flowers when you have them, and let the balance shift a little across the year rather than feeding an identical bowl every week.

Red-footed tortoises do not hibernate, so there is no seasonal break from feeding to plan around. What they do need is consistent warmth and humidity, without which none of the diet works properly. Fermentation depends on body temperature, and this species is less tolerant of British conditions than any other on the site.

Water should be available at all times, with regular soaking. See water and hydration, and winter feeding for the months when fresh plant material is scarce.

Commercial foods and supplements

Manufacturers produce separate formulations for forest and tropical species, higher in protein than the low-starch grazing diets, and the distinction is real rather than marketing. Check which one you are buying.

The wider pellet argument still applies. Veterinary guidance is that commercial diets should not be the whole diet, and the Tortoise Trust recommends avoiding mass-market pellets altogether on fibre and digestibility grounds. Both cases are in our guide to tortoise pellets.

Calcium and vitamin D3 matter as much here as anywhere. D3 comes from UVB, which glass blocks entirely. A forest species gets dappled rather than full sun in the wild, but it still needs proper provision indoors in Britain. See calcium and supplements.

For how this species compares with the others, see tortoise diets by species, and tortoise diet for the nutritional reasoning behind all of them.

Guidance here draws on published field research, the Tortoise Trust and veterinary sources, checked as described in our sources and review policy. It is husbandry information rather than clinical advice, as our veterinary disclaimer explains.

Last reviewed: September 2026.