Spur-Thighed Tortoise Diet: Feeding Testudo graeca

Weeds, leaves and flowers, high in fibre and calcium, low in protein and sugar, with very little fruit and no animal protein. In that respect the spur-thighed tortoise feeds like any other Mediterranean species.

Where it differs is the feeding year, and that depends on which sort of Testudo graeca you have. This species spans North Africa, the Middle East and southeastern Europe, and the populations at either end of that range live very different lives.

You can identify one by the spur on each thigh, a single undivided scute above the tail, and the absence of the horny tail tip that Hermann’s tortoises have.

Which spur-thighed tortoise do you have?

Fifteen subspecies of T. graeca have been proposed. Genetic work using mitochondrial haplotypes found solid support for only two main clades, one from North Africa and one from Turkey and the Middle East, with weak evidence for most of the rest. For a keeper, that two-way split is the one that matters.

Ibera types, from Turkey, the Balkans and northeastern Greece, are the hardier group. They resemble Hermann’s tortoises in climate, natural diet and hibernation pattern, and they cope with British outdoor conditions reasonably well.

North African and Middle Eastern types, including the small Tunisian and Libyan forms and the pale tortoises sold as “golden Greeks”, come from arid habitats. They are considerably more sensitive, poorly suited to outdoor life in a temperate climate, and not adapted to prolonged hibernation. Keepers who housed them like ibera tortoises historically lost a great many of them.

This matters for feeding because rest periods are part of the diet. A tortoise that hibernates gets a natural break from food. A tortoise that does not needs a managed winter feeding plan instead, which is covered in winter feeding.

If you are unsure which you have, a UK tortoise organisation can usually tell from photographs. Do not assume the pet shop label was accurate.

What they eat in the wild

Field research on this species is unusually good, and it is worth knowing what it actually shows.

Andreu recorded 88 different plant species eaten by Testudo graeca graeca in Doñana, southern Spain. A spring study in an overgrazed area of the Moroccan Atlas by Mouden and colleagues found 34 species taken, of which five made up around 70% of the intake: hawkbit, small-flowered mallow, and three legumes including a milk-vetch, a medick and a bird’s-foot trefoil.

Two of those five are common British weeds. Hawkbit and mallow both sit in the regular band of our food records, which is a useful piece of luck for anyone feeding this species in the UK.

Seeds matter more than most keepers realise. Cobo and Andreu identified 34 seed species in faecal pellets from Huelva province, and in dry periods pellets can be dominated by seed content. Some seeds pass through undigested and germinate better afterwards, so these tortoises act as seed dispersers.

Calcium comes partly from the ground. The limestone landscapes of Murcia and Almería are rich in calcium carbonate, which shows in the plants growing there, and wild tortoises also eat discarded snail shells, which turn up regularly in faecal analysis.

Suitable weeds and greens

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

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

Clover and other legumes deserve a mention given how prominently they feature in the Moroccan study. They belong in the rotation band rather than the daily one, because a wild tortoise taking medick among thirty-odd other species is doing something different from a captive one offered a bowl of clover every morning.

Identification is covered in best weeds for tortoises. To check anything specific, the food checker gives verdicts for the Mediterranean group, which is where this species sits.

Foods to limit

Fruit, sparingly at most. Apple, strawberry, grape and melon are all sugar loads for a gut adapted to dry scrub vegetation.

Root vegetables, including carrot, sparingly. High in readily digestible carbohydrate and poor in calcium relative to phosphorus.

Salad leaves and cucumber, in small amounts. Mostly water, very little fibre, and a common cause of loose droppings when they dominate the bowl.

Brassicas in rotation. Kale and spring greens are useful, with kale’s iodine content offsetting some of its goitrogens. Cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower are more heavily goitrogenic and better avoided altogether.

Foods to avoid

Dog food, cat food, meat, mealworms and boiled egg. Peas, beans and pulses. Bread and dairy. Tomato, spinach, rhubarb, celery and parsley. Potato, sweetcorn, onion, garlic and avocado. Buttercup, daffodil, foxglove and other toxic garden plants.

Animal protein is the one that causes irreversible damage, through accelerated growth, shell deformity, liver disease and renal problems. See tortoise foods to avoid for the full list.

One documented case is worth knowing about. A veterinary report describes a nine-year-old Testudo graeca that developed chronic gastrointestinal disease after eating wild lettuce, Lactuca virosa, which contains sesquiterpene lactones. The animal took 158 days of varied treatment before recovering. Wild lettuce is not on anyone’s danger list, which is exactly the point: if you cannot positively identify a plant, do not feed it.

Seasonal feeding in the UK

Wild T. g. graeca in southern Spain have two feeding seasons rather than one continuous stretch.

They emerge from a short brumation around mid-March into a flush of new growth, feeding heavily through April, May and early June. As summer arrives the vegetation dries out, temperatures climb past anything tolerable, and southern lowland populations aestivate. Very little green material survives. Occasional summer thunderstorms bring tortoises out briefly to drink and to void accumulated urates, and they feed on dry material, taking dried flowers and seed heads.

Autumn rains from late August bring a second flush and a second feeding season, running to roughly December.

Britain does not impose that rhythm, so it has to be allowed rather than resisted. Feed heavily in spring, let the graze in an outdoor pen coarsen through summer rather than compensating with more salad, taper in autumn if your tortoise hibernates, and rely on dried forage through winter.

Feeding stops several weeks before hibernation so the gut empties. See feeding before hibernation. If you have a North African type that does not hibernate, that page does not apply and the winter guide does.

Supplements

Calcium and vitamin D3 do the heavy lifting. Wild tortoises of this species get calcium from mineral-rich plants, calcareous ground and snail shells, and synthesise D3 from strong sunlight. A British garden supplies far less of both, and UVB does not pass through glass, so a windowsill achieves nothing.

Supplementation matters most through winter, when the diet leans on shop-bought greens with a weaker mineral profile. See calcium and supplements.

Water should be available at all times. Wild tortoises drink opportunistically and copiously when they get the chance, which is not the same as needing a diet high in water content. See water and hydration.

Species-specific cautions

Do not assume subspecies care is interchangeable. The difference between an ibera and a North African form is the difference between a tortoise that hibernates outdoors and one that should not.

Do not mix subspecies or species in one enclosure. Beyond the climate mismatch, Testudo species carry herpesvirus and other pathogens that can move between animals with serious consequences.

Watch growth rate rather than appetite. A spur-thighed tortoise growing quickly on a soft, digestible diet is heading towards metabolic bone disease whether or not the shell looks smooth.

For the group-level picture, including why fibre length matters as much as plant choice, see Mediterranean tortoise diet. The nutritional reasoning is in tortoise diet, and quantities are covered in how often to feed a tortoise.

Guidance here draws on the Tortoise Trust, the British Chelonia Group, published field research and veterinary sources, checked as described in our sources and review policy. It is husbandry information and not clinical advice, as our veterinary disclaimer explains.

Last reviewed: September 2026.