The Tortoise Table

Hi everyone!

Just wondering what the consensus is on bird's-nest fern (Asplenium Nidus) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asplenium_nidus

Reason for the ask is I had a rather large one moved into my backyard and my Aldabra ate the whole thing. Is it safe for them to eat? He seemed to really enjoy it .

Hi, and great to hear from you! Were you affected by the heat wave in Malaysia earlier this year? I hope all is well with you and your tortoises.

The problem with ferns is that there are about 20,000 different species, some of which have some anti-nutritional properties some of which don't. https://www.thetortoisetable.org.uk/pla ... nt=116&c=2
I've had a good look at Asplenium, and as far as I can see, it's not toxic, so he lucked out on that one! Actually, I don't think any of them are very toxic -- especially if they aren't eaten regularly, as they mainly have some anti-nutritiional properties and even those, given he has only eaten one plant, won't do any harm.

Hope that helps,

Nina

Hi Nina!

Always great to hear from you as well. My state (Kuala Lumpur) wasn't badly affected thankfully and so me and my tortoises are doing just fine
I hope you guys are doing well too!

As for the fern, that's really good to hear.
It might have been just the one plant but it was a pretty massive one haha, those bird's-nest ferns get pretty huge around here. I've attached some pics from my garden, the one he ate was much smaller though - but he really picked it clean

Anyway he's doing OK ever since, and I've not observed any bad reactions so we should be all clear, phew.

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