Sulcatas are GRASS/HAY eaters. From the moment they hatch, until the day they die, grass should be a large part of their diet. Spring mix, romaine, kale and other greens are okay as a small part of a varied diet, but should not be the bulk of the diet. If someone must feed grocery store foods, the pile should be sprinkled with grass clippings. For those who like the convenience of pre-packaged, easy to handle stuff, TNT should be sprinkled over any other food to add fiber, vitamins and minerals. TNT can be purchased at Carolina Pet Supply, carolinapetsupply/catalog/index.php?main_page=page&id=10 For those that have a lawn, or access to one: Get a tub, get some scissors, get down on your knees, and go to work! It is so EASY to cut a few handfuls of fresh, green, tender, young grass, and dramatically improve your baby sulcatas diet. Any kind of grass will work. Finely chop it for little tortoises and sprinkle it all over the other food, or feed it by itself in a pile. Do be careful about lawn chemicals and pesticides. If you have a gardener, or its not your lawn, use extreme caution. Live in a condo or apartment complex? Dont do it. Not worth the risk, no matter what they tell you. Just grow your own grass in pots on your patio or window sills. Friends, family and neighbors might be able to help you out here. For those who still just love the grocery store: Most stores are now selling little plastic pots of live, freshly sprouted, organic wheat grass. You can find it at many pet stores too. This is a great way to add grass to the diet of a young sulcata. Get your scissors, hold the pot over the food pile and chop away. Water it and keep the pot in a window sill, and in a few days, youll have more. You might need several pots as your baby grows, or you can buy seed from one of these sites. Tortoise Supply: This is the grasses seed mix that we like the most. tortoisesupply/AfricanGrazerMix Pasture mixes or other seeds from groworganic/seeds.html Sulcata Food: sulcatafood/Seeds.html Carolina Pet Supply: carolinapetsupply/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=41&products_id=179 Some of you may find that your grass eating tortoise wants nothing to do with eating grass. This should surprise no one, since most breeders and most keepers never even attempt to feed actual grass to their grass eating tortoise babies. So sad! I can tell you from first hand experience, they WILL eat it. It may take a month or more to slowly introduce it, but PLEASE, slowly introduce it. Training a Sulcata to eat hay: Here is how we got Kendall to eat hay when she was 1 month old. 1. We cut up Timothy hay and orchard hay with scissors into very small pieces. 2. Placed the chopped hay in a blender and blended until it is a powder. 3. Soaked the blended hay in water for 10 minutes. 4. Drained off the excess water. 5. Chopped up Spring Mix greens or any greens that you have available with scissors into very small pieces. Chop the greens as small as possible so that the Sulcata cant pick the greens out of the hay. 6. Mixed the chopped hay with the chopped Spring Mix greens or any greens that you have available. Mix very well. 7. Give it to your tortoise. One day I put the soaked hay in the enclosure before I added the greens and Kendall ate the entire pile of hay. With that said, it works very well at getting a Sulcata to eat hay. Other items that are good for babies and young sulcatas: Mulberry leaves Grape vine leaves Hibiscus leaves African hibiscus leaves Blue hibiscus leaves Rose of Sharon leaves Rose leaves Geraniums Gazanias Lavatera Pansies Petunias Hostas Honeysuckle Cape honeysuckle Leaves and blooms from any squash plant, like pumpkin, cucumber, summer squash, etc... Young spineless opuntia cactus pads Weeds: There are soooooooo many... Dandelion Mallow Filaree Smooth Sow thistle Prickly Sow thistle Milk thistle Goat head weed Cats ear Nettles Trefoil Wild onion Wild mustard Wild Garlic Clovers Broadleaf plantain Narrow leaf plantain Chick weed Hawksbit Hensbit Hawksbeard Other good stuff: African Grazer Grass Mix tortoisesupply/AfricanGrazerMix Testudo Seed Mix from tortoisesupply/SeedMixes Pasture mixes or other seeds from groworganic/seeds.html Homegrown alfalfa Mazuri Tortoise Chow ZooMed Grassland Tortoise Food When sulcatas get a little older and bigger, usually around 10-12, they will start munching on plain, dry grass hay, all on their own. I like orchard grass hay the best for this, but we also use Bermuda grass hay, St. Augustine grass hay and Timothy grass hay also. When they hit this stage, life gets MUCH easier. Just make sure you have drinking water readily available when they start eating hay, and consider soaking regularly if you are not 100% sure your tortoise is drinking enough, or if you live in a really dry area. There is green stuff all around you. I beg you to take a walk and learn about all the green stuff around you, INSTEAD of driving to the store again. What could be better than stepping out into your backyard and collecting all the free, healthy tortoise food you can carry? We can identify most weeds so contact us and we will help you identify the weeds. Think of the gas savings! Anyone who is a tortoise keeper, ought to be somewhat of a agrostoligist and gardener too. ✌️ These are pots of: African Grazer Grass Seed Mix Sulcata Food Southern Indoor Mix
Posted on: Mon, 10 Nov 2014 10:50:17 +0000
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