Reptile & Amphibian Forums

A female sulcata came into my care several weeks ago from a man who found her crossing the road here in south east florida. She weighed 3 lbs 0 oz when I got her 2.5 weeks ago. She now weighs 3 lbs 4.5 oz. Is she growing too quickly? I'm afraid I'm feeding her too much. Is there any chart that I can refer to for this breed?

Thanks!
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Spider

he/she is not growing to quickly sulcatas in there first few years of have a rapid growth expecially in captivity. they have a huge appitite when they are healthy so tell the little dude he is lucky and feed it lots of high fiber low protien foods and graze on lots of grass. you should have a healthy sulcata for years! good luck to both of you

Thank you for your reply. If I let her eat all she wants, she will eat all day long in huge amounts. She will eat a huge pile of dandelion greens in one sitting if I let her. However, she does not eat her hay. I have timothy, which she detests, and orchard grass which she very occasionally nibbles on. Is there anything I can do to make the hay more appealing to her? I'd hate to resort to "starving" her to get her to eat it, but I know it's important for her to eat drier foods. She does have fairly moist stool, which is improving slowly.
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Spider

in nature they are grazers and spend most of the day doing that. to get them to eat hay i take a clump of it in my hand and use some really good garden shears and cut it into whatever size you feel is appropriate size pieces. careful not to get your finger...i have been thinking of puting the hay in a vise lately to help cut it. you will know what i mean when you try it. then i get a container to put the hay in (i use a 5 gal. bucket) and add water and let it sit maybe 5-10 min. enough time for the hay to soak up the water. then i chop up whatever veggie of the day it is lay it on the ground and cover it with the hay. now the sulcata has to eat through the hay to get to the goodies. this saves on your lawn and grocery bill. hope this helps!

oh also i noticed the greener the hay the more they like it. i use alfalfa.

Don't know exactly where you are located or where the tortoise was found, but if within the range of G. polyphemus, is it at all possible the tortoise the man found and gave you could be a Gopher Tortoise rather than a sulcata? Just a thought.

Also, how large is it? It is hard to tell how much it should weigh without knowing the length of the carapace.