Best Food For Sulcata Tortoise
Feeding sulcata tortoise pellets when feeding a sulcata tortoise commercial diets offer pellets 1 3 times a week.
Best food for sulcata tortoise. This is easy for you considering that they mostly stay outside due to their giant size and weight. Sulcata tortoise has a voracious appetite and so providing it a proper diet is essential for its health. While most will eat leafy greens and vegetables the ratios in which they eat them may differ. A very large tortoise the sulcata tortoise at full maturity can reach sizes from 24 to 30 inches in length.
In addition to the exposure to sunlight the turtle will also get a bit of exercise. They also love hay and it is good for them. However in captivity its diet may include dark leafy greens such as collards mustard romaine and red leaf lettuce. Various species of clover are excellent for sulcata tortoises who enjoy the leaves and flowers of the plant.
You can think of the sulcata tortoise as a slow lawnmower eating through your grass. Along with fresh water the most important staple in your sulcata s diet is grass. It mainly requires a diet which is high in fiber and calcium and low in fat and protein. Sulcata tortoises reach sexual maturity at about 6 years old and stop growing at around.
Growing rapidly a 2 inch baby sulcata tortoise hatchling can reach sizes of over 10 in a 18 months and 18 in 24 months. You will need to research the specific tortoise breed to ensure you provide the right diet which they can eat and still thrive. Sulcata tortoises are from the saharan desert and thus shouldn t eat foods high in sugar or water. Be sure no pesticides or other chemicals have been applied to any clover that you allow your sulcata to eat.
As with grass you can take your tortoise outside for clover if it grows naturally near you. 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. African spurred tortoise also sulcata tortoise. Species such as red and yellow footed tortoises can tolerate fruit and therefore it can make up a small part of their daily diet.
If you have a sulcata tortoise it is best to feed it with a diet that is made mainly of grass and weeds. Foods for different tortoise breeds sulcata tortoise. 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.
Feed them a high fiber low protein diet containing sufficient calcium. If your sulcata won t eat the pellets dry you can moisten them in warm water. They are grazers much like a cow and love to walk all day lazily munching on it. Leafy greens lawn grasses grape leaves and hibiscus flowers.
Try to feed them with different types of green grass and sometimes weeds like dandelions. 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.