Sad person that I am I got very excited when I found these pesticide free Opuntia's on the net this afternoon - Opuntia Chlorotica and Opuntia Engelmannii are both sold pesticide free (especially for tortoise food )so can be fed straight away.

OPUNTIA CHLOROTICA (for TORTOISE FOOD)*::*Cactus Plants*::*Easy Cactus

The site also has some great succulents like Echeveria - unfortunately not sold pesticide free but worth buying to weather off as they're lots cheaper than I've seen them in garden centres. I managed to leave my mum and dads today with quite a few edible plant cuttings that I haven't got in my garden - and with 10 Echeveria from my dad's greenhouse (my mum said he'd never notice, he's got 100's of the things ).

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iv had some cactus off this guy i got optunia india

there is something really odd about how excited i get when i find plants for my tortoises. my family look on in horror as i examine the neighbours weeds and rummage through the bargain section in garden centres. But the effort has deffinately paid off, i have tons of pretty pants to supplement the diet and also provide cover.

i have opuntia in my garden but lately it seems to have gone a bit rotten, havent checked on it for a while though. My husband has a hate hate relationship with it. Its the same as the one in the link above but with 6 pads, with big fat spiney clusters all over it. when we moved house i wrapped the opuntia in old clothes to protect them during transit. A few days after we moved in my hubby came down stairs nearly crying. i had only wrapped the opuntia in his work clothes. he had spines stuck half an inch in his back, shoulder, armpit , buttocks and groin area. it took me a full week to get all the little fiddly spikes out and i had to throw his uniform out. how he puts up with me i do not know.

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The goat made me remember!! all hail the mighty goat

You lot do make me




OPUNTIA CHLOROTICA try saying that when ya drunk !!!!!!!!!!

Well at least she might like opuntia... and it's better than mealies which someone thinks she should eat

Who is it goes out and buys prawns especially for their redfoots?? Now let me think.



Ali... I got a spine stuck in my thumb at the garden centre this afternoon and that was painful enough, it's making me cringe thinking about your OH with them stuck in his groin

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when i was in tenerife i was admiring the optunia growing wild decided to grab one of the pears hanging of the pads, ended up with millions of little spikes in my fingers even up my nails very painful took a while to get them all out.

[quote=Tina;1798127]Well at least she might like opuntia... and it's better than mealies which someone thinks she should eat

Who is it goes out and buys prawns especially for their redfoots?? Now let me think.



is it blazin ?



and what daft nut would think a hermans would eat mealworms YUCK perhaps waxworms,now I would try her on those and see if she was mine.

So that is optunia is it, I think I have one of them then.... I grew it from a packet of cacti seeds.... Non of the other cacti survived though, they got to about a cm in height and then shrivelled up!

At last, something I can grow that Shelley can't....

all my cacti grow lovely

Nice sunny south facing windowsill and very little water.

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this is one of my big ones