The regular feeding of salads, vegetables and fruits is probably one of the most pernicious and harmful misconceptions in turtle keeping. This persistent and repetitive habit mainly stems from the fact that these products are actually healthy, plant-based foods for humans and can therefore be bought and used easily, quickly and always available, and on the other hand, fatally, they are also readily eaten by the turtles.
If you consider the habitat of tortoises, it becomes clear that cultivated salads, vegetables and fruits, but also juicy and protein-rich meadows are not part of the natural food supply. The intestine of a tortoise cannot properly digest this too soft, protein-rich and sugar-containing food. Even occasional feeding leads to a disturbed balance of microorganisms in the intestine. This imbalance in the gut sometimes leads to severe diarrhea. Since tortoises are unfortunately not able to distinguish between healthy and unhealthy food, colorful and interesting smelling fruits, vegetables and salads are always eaten very gladly and greedily when available. Gout, constipation, shell deformities and fatty liver and even death are the result.
Basically, all commercial types of lettuce are an inferior food for turtles. Lettuce contains mainly water, has practically no raw fiber rich in fiber and also no noteworthy or valuable ingredients such as vitamins or trace elements. Nutritionally and energy-wise, lettuce is an absolute no-go for turtles. Lettuce is primarily a cultivated food crop of humans and is grown in different varieties in large monocultures. Residues of phosphate and pesticides make it even more unsuitable for feeding turtles. Due to its high water requirements, it also does not grow in wild form in the dry habitats of tortoises. Thus, it is absolutely impossible for a ray tortoise that originates from a semi-arid zone to ever come into contact with a lettuce-like plant in the wild.