Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Any ideas on how to get him to eat hay? All he wants is veggies. Mostly carrots and squash. He has the run of a really big enclosure during the day and into a hay filled pool at night. I think he is about 4-5 years old and about 20-25 lbs with very little pyramiding. Overall he isnt in bad shape. Just need to finish a house for him then he will be in the enclosure full time. Any suggestions on how to get him to eat hay or dried grasses? thanks

Good for you for rescuing him!!

Mine won't eat hay because she's always got fresh Bermuda grass growing for her but I've read accounts over the last few years of how others have managed to get their sulcatas to eat hay.

One way is to cut it up into smaller bite sized bunches,
sometimes soaking it in water for a little while first seems to help.
Other people have had success with grinding it up in a blender or food processor into almost a powder then mixing it in with their greens.
Some people have done this sort of the way you switch a dog's food, add a little of what you want them to eat with the food they're used to then each day add a little more but give them a little less of the other food.
Eventually you eliminate the other food so that they're eating what you want them to eat.
Hopefully someone else here will have some ideas for you.
Good luck with this one.. did you name him yet?
Please post a photo if you have one.
-----
PHRatz

thanks for the information. i will try that and see how he does. the person that i got him from was calling him tipsy. i dont care so much for that name but have yet to find a better one. i will try to get some pics of him.

>>thanks for the information. i will try that and see how he does. the person that i got him from was calling him tipsy. i dont care so much for that name but have yet to find a better one. i will try to get some pics of him.

Hmmm Tipsy, I understand why you might want to change that name. LOL He's not a drunken tortoise after all!
Most of us usually don't like the name someone else chose & I think that's a normal way to react.
Let us know if any of the feeding tricks work or not.

I got to thinking about what the first few days were like when our tortoise got here. There's no telling how long she'd gone without food because she'd been found dumped out in the countryside & acted like she was starving even though they are eating machines. Kind of hard to tell which is starving behavior & which is normal lol.
I thought starving partly because the person who drove her to my house drove a pickup truck & said there were bits of dog food loose in the bed of the truck, she ate that.

I remember now that after she'd been here for about a week I saw her eat some fresh grass. Once she finally did that, there was never any problem with her eating what she should. One day a couple of months later I saw her find a bite of dog food that a bird had dropped into the yard, she smelled it but didn't eat it.
This may not be true for all of them but for ours it was... I chalked it up to once they settle in, get comfortable, realize that they have what they should eat available to them then that's what they'll choose.
I'm going to bet that it won't be long before you have yours eating the right way.
I hope so!
-----
PHRatz