Leguat stated that the Rodrigues solitaire fed on dates, whereas Tafforet mentioned seeds and leaves. No other accounts mention diet. It has been suggested it ate latan palm fruits, for which it competed with the now extinct "Cylindraspis" tortoises. It is not known how the young were fed, but related pigeons provide crop milk. The risings on the crop of the female may have covered glands that produced the crop milk. If the theory is correct, the birds may have practiced a division of labour, where the female stayed and fed the young crop milk, while the male collected food in the crop and delivered it to the female. It has been suggested that the maximum size attained by the solitaire and the dodo was limited by the amount of crop milk they were able to produce for their young during early growth.