We've seen several references to the dietary needs of Desert Tortoises (Gopherus (Xerobates) agassizii.) Some of these references are incorrect, and others are very outdated.  Please do proper research before offering food items to your Desert Tortoise.  Desert tortoises are a very sensitive species, with highly specialized dietary needs.  

Desert Tortoises live in the incredibly harsh Mojave and Colorado deserts.  We reside in the Mojave Desert ourselves and track these animals, conducting continual field research into their unique needs.

This will hopefully serve as a proper list of do's and don'ts regarding healthier  feeding for caretakers of these creatures. Don't trust your Desert Tortoise to just any diet,  doing so can cause irreversible and often fatal damage.

In the spring upon waking from hibernation, offer fresh sprouting grasses and wildflowers.  As the heat of summer approaches, allow offered items to dry in the enclosure, at this time of year a desert tortoise requires far less moisture in the diet, and may prefer drier, coarser items to maintain proper gut function.

Desert tortoises do not need to eat daily. In the wild, they often go several days without eating when the weather is too hot for them to emerge from their burrows.  Please feed thoroughly but sparingly!

No water should be allowed to sit in the enclosure, instead turn on a sprinkler once weekly to simulate "rain" which should kick the tortoise's drinking instincts  into gear.  Allow them to drink from puddles which form. This is the healthiest way to trigger  them to void old stores of fluids, replacing it with fresh. Too much water is harmful to a desert tortoise.  Enclosures need to be kept at as low a humidity as possible. Desert tortoises should not under any circumstances, be soaked in standing water.