Moving to a new garden, may indeed not be the right thing to do, depending on the aspect (south or north facing) and the weeds available to the tortoise. I imagine in it's preveious garden it would have been eating other weeds too. Buttercups are actually on the poisonous list, they can kill horses apparently which is why you see them growing so tall in horse pasture. Tomatoes upset the gut flora so not a good idea. Avoid all fruit and make sure there are plenty of dandelions, clover, plantain and other weeds which are all mentioned here www.tortsmad.com Also as already mentioned the position of the garden is very important if it's not south facing and does not have a suitable hibernation spot or the ground is too stony or boggy for him to dig a correct pit then he may not come through the next hibernation at all. I have had tortoises do this but it's not ideal in our climate as if there is a warm spell and then he emerges and goes back, he may never wake again having used all his glycogen boost mid winter.
Hope this helps.
Sue

Thanks Sue,

It turns out I needn't have been so hasty anyway, as I shall now not be taking him on for years yet, until my fiance's parent's retire and move to spain.

To the other posters, please don't attack my fiance for sticking up for me, I got some pretty nasty private messages when I first posted this thread, which upset me and angered him which is why he came across as he did.

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It's a sad fact that a lot of posters on forums spend most of their time on the defensive for some reason, instead of trying to help. No-one is perfect and if people are asking for help then it is our place to try to do that insttead of being nasty. This is my main reason for keeping away from a lot of forums over the past few years. Just keep looking and you will find the better ones with no predjudice or bullying

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Take care
Sue
www.tortsmad.com
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/tortsmad