Best Food For Sulcata Tortoise
Grass should be the primary source of nutrients for sulcata tortoises but during the colder months when grass isn t available feed your sulcata hay.
Best food for sulcata tortoise. Sulcata tortoises are from the saharan desert and thus shouldn t eat foods high in sugar or water. While most will eat leafy greens and vegetables the ratios in which they eat them may differ. Grass is the best food for a tortoise. Feed them a high fiber low protein diet containing sufficient calcium.
You can think of the sulcata tortoise as a slow lawnmower eating through your grass. Growing rapidly a 2 inch baby sulcata tortoise hatchling can reach sizes of over 10 in a 18 months and 18 in 24 months. Try to feed them with different types of green grass and sometimes weeds like dandelions. Basic diet of a sulcata tortoise sulcatas need a high fiber low protein calcium rich diet.
Tortoises love the sweetness of fruits but the digestive system in most tortoises is not geared towards digesting fruit and offering it should be limited. If your sulcata won t eat the pellets dry you can moisten them in warm water. Along with fresh water the most important staple in your sulcata s diet is grass. Sulcata tortoise has a voracious appetite and so providing it a proper diet is essential for its health.
It mainly requires a diet which is high in fiber and calcium and low in fat and protein. Species such as red and yellow footed tortoises can tolerate fruit and therefore it can make up a small part of their daily diet. Feeding sulcata tortoise pellets when feeding a sulcata tortoise commercial diets offer pellets 1 3 times a week. This is easy for you considering that they mostly stay outside due to their giant size and weight.
A very large tortoise the sulcata tortoise at full maturity can reach sizes from 24 to 30 inches in length. Grass is their staple and most of your tortoise food should be grass or grass hay including rye and clover. Foods for different tortoise breeds sulcata tortoise. They are grazers much like a cow and love to walk all day lazily munching on it.
You will need to research the specific tortoise breed to ensure you provide the right diet which they can eat and still thrive. Commercial tortoise foods should not be the primary diet but fed along with a varied diet of grasses weeds and greens. Sulcata tortoises reach sexual maturity at about 6 years old and stop growing at around. Leafy greens lawn grasses grape leaves and hibiscus flowers.
The sulcata tortoise is a strict vegetarian and in wild just like cows and sheep it gazes dry fibrous grasses and hays as well as occasional fruits and blossoms. If you have a sulcata tortoise it is best to feed it with a diet that is made mainly of grass and weeds.