Recommended Diet For Sulcata Tortoises
What you feed your sulcata is critical to
its health and development
Sulcata tortoises evolved to deal with life in a semi-arid
environment, where the only food available for much of the year is
dry grasses and weeds. Sulcata tortoises require a very
high-fiber, grass-based diet to stay healthy. If you feed the
wrong foods to your tortoise, it will grow too quickly, develop a
bumpy, pyramided shell, and may develop other health problems that
could drastically shorten its lifespan.
Common Dietary Problems with sulcata tortoises
There are five common dietary problems that owners of
sulcata tortoises typically encounter when feeding their
tortoises:
1: Not providing enough fiber
2: Providing too much protein
3: Giving fruit or other sugary foods to
grazing tortoises like sulcata and leopard torts
4: Not providing enough calcium, or the right
calcium/phosphorus balance
5: Generally overfeeding the tortoise
How to Avoid These Common Dietary Problems
You are responsible for the health and well-being of your
tortoise, so you must make the effort to feed the right foods, and
in the right quantities. Here are a few suggestions to help you
avoid the typical dietary pitfalls:
1: Provide enough fiber by feeding your
tortoise a diet that is based predominantly on grasses with some
edible weeds, leaves and flowers, as described in more detail
below.
2: AVOID giving your tortoise foods that
contain high levels of protein. This means that you should NEVER
give your sulcata tortoise the following foods:
-Cheese or dairy products of any kind
-Cat or dog food of any kind
-Legumes (peas, beans, green beans, soybeans or soy-based
products like tofu)
-Commercially available "tortoise diets" (such as
Pretty Pets, Mazuri, Zoo Med,
etc.)
-Grains and Grain products (corn, wheat, barley, rye, etc.)
-Vegetables in large quantities-All types of
produce grown for human consumption-even dark leafy greens - are
too high in protein for sulcata tortoises to thrive on. However,
SMALL quantities, given ONCE IN A WHILE as a treat, don't seem to
be harmful.
3: AVOID giving your sulcata fruit! Even
though sulcata love fruit, it's best NOT to give them any, if
possible. Grazing tortoise species such as leopard and sulcata
rely on beneficial bacteria in their intestines to help them
digest and extract nourishment from the grasses that they eat.
If you give your tortoise large amounts of fruit, the acids
and sugars in the fruit can actually change the pH of the
tortoise's digestive tract, and this pH change can cause the
beneficial bacteria in the tortoise's gut to die off. When large
quantities of gut bacteria die, they release toxins that can cross
the gut wall and enter the tortoise's bloodstream, causing the
tortoise to experience a form of Toxic Shock Syndrome that can be
fatal.
4: Provide the right amounts of calcium and avoid foods that
prevent calcium absorption. 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. Wild sulcata tortoises therefore get
sufficient calcium by eating the grasses that grow in these
calcium-laden soils.
Think about where you live and how you feed your tortoise.
If you live in a semi-arid or arid area with little rainfall, the
calcium levels in your local soil will be relatively high. Any
grasses grown in such a calcium-rich soil will also be high in
calcium, so if you allow your tortoise to graze at will on grasses
grown in this soil, you might not have to give your tortoise much
in the way of calcium supplements.
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. However, the
phosphorus available in most food items is used much more readily
by the tortoise's body than calcium, so you really don't need to
supply any additional phosphorus to your tortoise.
Rep-Cal is a good calcium supplement, and is available at
many pet stores. However, a large bag of plain, powdered limestone
(calcium carbonate) will probably cost you a lot less. You can
find 50-pound bags of calcium carbonate at livestock supply stores
or feed stores that sell poultry supplies. The best way to use
Rep-Cal or powdered calcium carbonate is to sprinkle a small
amount lightly over the tortoise's food on a regular basis.
Certain foods contain oxalic acid compounds that prevent the
body from absorbing calcium from food. You should AVOID feeding
your tortoise the following foods regularly because of the oxalic
acids in them:
-Spinach
-Kale
-Broccoli
-Mustard Greens
-Cauliflower
5: AVOID over-feeding your tortoise. Sulcata
tortoises can experience a variety of health problems when they
are fed the wrong foods-but 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
everyday? Or does he stay indoors on a small tortoise table? If
your tortoise is mostly sedentary, he doesn't need to be fed every
day-really! Every other day is fine, even though he may look up at
you with pleading eyes in between feedings. A certain amount of
"tough love" is required on your part to not give in.
Consider this analogy: A sedentary tortoise on a tortoise
table is like an office worker stuck in a cubicle all day long. If
the office worker eats a lot of fast food all the time and never
gets any exercise, the chances are pretty good that he or she is
going to be overweight, flabby, and have high cholesterol, high
blood pressure, and other health problems. Tortoises who live
indoors on a tortoise table and who are fed lots of vegetables
(which are their equivalent of fast food!) on a daily basis are
ALSO going to experience health problems. They will develop
pyramided shells, they may be more susceptible to upper
respiratory infections, and they may develop damage to their
kidneys and liver.
Please call us if you have any
questions! 847-329-8709
