The bulk of their diet should be from pesticide and herbicide-free grass and grass cuttings, cheatgrass, clover, edible flowers nasturtium, geraniums, hibiscus, rose petals , and shrubs. Leafy greens can be offered often. Limit greens that are high in oxalates, such as parsley, spinach, rhubarb, beet greens, and collard greens. You have to be careful with Spinach, and collard greens. It is okay to feed these. But it should NOT be the only or bulk of the veggie greens! It is perfectly okay to feed these items one to five percent of the time.
These can include grated raw carrots, winter squash, sweet potatoes, pumpkin, broccoli, corn on the cob; greens such as collards, dandelions, escarole, romaine, kale. You have to be careful with kale, and broccoli. Fruits should be fed sparingly, as a treat. These tend to be high in sugar and water content, both of which sulcatas are not accustomed to receiving in the wild. Fruits that are appropriate to offer as treats include strawberries, chunks of organically grown bananas with skin, cantaloupe with rind attached, berries; peaches no pits , apricots no pits , pears, apples.
Sulcata tortoises require a great deal of calcium in their diet to help them grow healthy bones and shells. The Sahel area of Africa where sulcata naturally occur is a semi-arid region that has calcium-rich soils.
African Sulcata tortoises, therefore, get sufficient calcium by eating the grasses that grow in these calcium-laden soils.
In choosing a calcium supplement, make sure you choose one that does NOT contain Phosphorus. Calcium CA and Phosphorus P are both necessary to build healthy bone tissue. Baby and smaller sulcatas have a harder time eating the tougher grass and hay because of their less powerful jaws. Sulcatas respond to bright colors, so always include at least one vividly colored food in your selection.
This also means that you must keep inedible brightly colored things away from them! Mazuri is a world leader in quality exotic animal nutrition for virtually every living exotic animal. All I know is we trusted this food source even before our veterinarian told us it was one of the most important things to include in the diet of tortoises, especially desert species.
Click here to go to the Mazuri website to learn more about this diet. Certain foods contain oxalic acid compounds that prevent the body from absorbing calcium from food. Avoid over-feeding your tortoise. Equally, they can also have problems when they are fed too much of the right foods.
Overfeeding is the single biggest mistake that most tortoise keepers make. Reptiles have slower metabolisms than mammals like dogs and cats, so they really do not need to take in as much food as you might think.
You should also consider the activity level of your tortoise. Can he go outdoors and walk around a secure yard every day? Or does he stay indoors on a small tortoise table? Every other day is fine, even though he may look up at you with pleading eyes in between feedings. Click here to read our blog page that lists Bad Plants For Animals. Click here to see why Soaking Your Tortoises is important! Do you appreciate the information we shared and want to thank us?
In captivity, a similarly hot and dry environment must be provided year round. Unlike the California desert tortoises, the sulcatas do not hibernate. While they can tolerate some surprisingly low temperatures, they cannot be allowed to get both chilled and wet or kept outdoors in chill, damp weather. Sulcatas like to move around and are very strong — they must have a large area in which to freely and widely roam. Sulcatas also need to burrow away from the heat and do so by retreating to their pallets or into muddy wallows where they will stay for hours, flipping cool mud up onto their backs.
Whether housed indoors or out, Sulcatas roam about and are voracious eaters. Like many tortoises, they are also climbers.
Care must be taken to assure they are not given the opportunity to climb things that are too steep resulting in their toppling over. If they flip onto their backs and are not able to right themselves, they may die. Keep dangerous objects out of their area. Steps, dogs, raccoons and children are among some of the dangers that must be guarded against. Sulcatas are voracious, if not always smart, eaters and will ingest anything small enough and colorful enough. Provide variety and security.
Tortoises do not bask on the bare open ground. Provide a cluster of sturdy, low growing plants they can crowd in amongst. Provide an interesting terrain by leaving or building some low hummocks, smooth rocks, pieces of wood, clumps of weeds and edible plants. In captivity, they need to be able to graze on pesticide- and herbicide-free grasses and weeds. Sulcatas respond to bright colors, so always include at least one vividly colored food in your selection.
This also means that you must keep inedible brightly colored things away from them! Due to the tremendous amount of room these tortoises need to roam and graze, keeping them indoors year round is not advised.
Are you a veterinary professional? Stay connected and sign up for our newsletter. Sign up for our newsletter. I also include a few large, flat rocks in an indoor enclosure. Sulcata tortoises that live outdoors are tolerant to various temperature ranges. High temperatures are not going to be a problem provided the tortoise has a shaded area to escape to if desired.
The tortoises themselves can handle surprisingly cold temperatures, as low as 45 degrees Fahrenheit, with no problems. When nighttime temperatures drop below 50 degrees, a heated hide box should be provided that maintains at least 55 to 60 degrees at night 70s is better , or the tortoises should be brought in during those times. Sulcata tortoises are kept outdoors year-round in some parts of the country where nighttime lows in the winter are 20 degrees including here in Las Vegas.
It is absolutely required that these tortoises are checked on each evening to make sure they get into a heated area and do not fall asleep out in the open and become exposed to these temperatures at night.
Indoors, sulcata tortoises can be maintained at normal room temperatures: 68 to 80 degrees. They should also have a basking area heated by an overhead light. This spot should be in the degree range. Like most diurnal, herbivorous reptiles, they need a UVB light in their indoor enclosures to help them properly process the calcium in their diets. Keep lights on 12 to 14 hours a day, and turn off all light and heat sources at night. Sulcata tortoises are eager eaters, rarely turning down a meal.
With adult tortoises, the best staple diets are various grasses and leaves, the same as their natural diet. They will graze on any of the lawn grasses, mulberry leaves, grape leaves, hibiscus leaves and flowers. With size, most sulcata tortoises will eat grass hays we like orchard grass hay.
Baby and smaller sulcatas have a harder time eating the tougher grass and hay because of their less powerful jaws. We also use spring mixes particularly with baby sulcata tortoises , which have several leafy ingredients in them, and we supplement with kale, collard greens, turnip greens and any of the darker lettuce types.
Cactus pads have become a major part of the diet of many of our tortoises as well. Mazuri Tortoise Diet is offered occasionally to cover any of the nutritional bases that the other diet may have missed. Variety is the key. Feed tortoises from a grass surface, flat rock or concrete, or from a tray. To prevent them from eating soil or rocks, never feed tortoises directly from a gravel or dirt surface. Sulcata tortoises can have small water dishes in their outdoor enclosures. We use shallow, low-sided dishes that are glazed to make cleaning easy.
Cleaning must be done on a regular basis, as most tortoises tend to soak in their dishes and defecate in them. Tortoises living in areas with regular rainfall drink from puddles and leaves. If you live in areas with prolonged dry periods, such as Las Vegas, offering them water helps to keep them hydrated. When sulcata tortoises are housed indoors, I prefer not to have standing water in the bowls, because they tend to defecate in them while soaking.
In shallow water, the tortoises usually begin drinking immediately and flush their systems at the same time. They need to be soaked outside the enclosure in shallow, warm water once or twice a week for 15 to 30 minutes to get fully hydrated.
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