Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have owned a female sulcata for almost 3 years, and have currently aquired a 5 year old male. The female, which I have had since hatchling size, is beautiful. No signs of pyramiding and no illnesses. The male does show some signs of pyramiding which looks to have occurred early in life. He had been rescued from an owner when he was around 2 that had fed him dog food and tomotoes as a staple diet. With proper diet for the last three years, the pyramiding has stopped. After much research, I have learned that the winter diet I have been providing my tortoises is apparently incorrect. I live in the Appalachian Mountains of Virginia, no where near the natural habitat of these guys. During the summer, they have an outdoor enclosure and graze. I also offer additional clover, fresh alfalfa, plantan and dandelions since they quickly graze these out of their encolosure. In the winter months I bring them inside and feed mostly store bought greens and veggies. I follow the basic rules of staying away from too much kale, broccoli, etc but still give zuchini, squash, collards, mustard greens, turnip greens and very rarely a fruit treat. After much reading, I am feeling guilty about this. They are offered timothy hay and small amounts of alfalfa hay, which they do not eat. It's impossible to find fresh grass here from November to March, so what do I do??? I have contemplated growing some inside in window boxes, but these guys eat alot. I can't imagine that would be enough. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Well, it sounds like they are doing just fine on the diet you are giving them based on the fact that there is no pyramiding.

Have you tried orchard grass hay? If not, give it a try and maybe wet it a little....that seems to make it a bit more palatable.

You might want to eliminate or reduce the alfalfa since it is higher in protein.

I'm not a gardener & don't have a green thumb but I wonder are there no winter grasses available nationwide?
I bought a rye grass seed mix a few years ago only because we suddenly had a sulcata & found that we needed to learn something about gardening in our area.
I found that all the nurseries & home improvement stores here sell this winter grass seed each fall. I bought it & it actually grew for me through the winter.
I seeded the lawn 2 years in a row then it started coming in on it's own without me seeding again. Because of that I have grass growing year round.
I have Bermuda in the warm months, this other stuff in the cold months... but I don't live in a place where winter lasts for long. We only have about 3 months of winter weather.
Have you checked the plant nurseries in your area? Is there not any type of winter grass available where you live? I wouldn't have known there is winter grass here if I hadn't needed to plant it.
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PHRatz

I hadn't thought of that. I will check into it. We are above 3.500 ft elevation, and it gets pretty cold here.... got to below 0 last year for a few days. We are going to have to build these guys a turtle mansion in a few years!! I just couldn't part with them though. They are awsome. My little female that I have raised is so personable. The new guy is still a little skiddish. Don't think he was interacted with often. I will check on the winter grass though. If not I am going to have 15 window boxes of grass around the house and my family is going to think I have lost my mind!! They just hate the hay. I am going to try to get a hold of some orchard hay, but of course... they say it is pretty close to timothy and they won't touch that! Spoiled I guess!! Well thanks for the advice!!

That was my problem, I looked at the little pots of natural grass in the pet stores & thought that's 2 bites for her then it's gone. No point in throwing money away on that stuff.
I can't plant grass in window boxes or pots, because I can't grow enough of it that way. This winter grass seed was a blessing to find.
Our tortoise would/will not touch dry hay either. When we got her the first thing I did was look up info on the Internet, every site I found said they need hay. So my husband went out & bought her a bale of hay from a feed store before we'd even decided if we were going to keep her or not, she never ate any of it! LOL
My husband built her a mansion so we used the hay as a substrate, it made a horrible mess, it started to mold we had to get rid of it. It really stunk up the concrete in the mansion, I had to use bleach to get that odor out of there. Now in winter I use paper to cover the concrete floor.
We ended up tossing the hay over the fence thinking wild rabbits would eat it, nope they didn't want it either I guess because it was moldy by then. Finally what was left of it went in the garbage.
Last winter was our Destiny's 3rd winter here, last winter for the first time I actually saw her eating some of the dried out & dormant Bermuda grass. That's as close to hay as she's ever gotten.
I do see her eat this winter grass, there are many days in winter that it's warm enough in the afternoon for her to come to graze & she will. We're lucky that some of the leafy green weeds here grow only in winter so between the winter grass & weeds, she has plenty to eat. She eats a whole lot less then but she has enough. It didn't cost a whole lot either for the winter grass seed, not at Lowe's where I bought it. I got 10lbs for less than $10.00.
Anyway.. good luck I hope you can find something like it that will work where you are.
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PHRatz

Don't you just love them. Mine have been giving me the evil eye since last week, when I moved them inside. It got down to 38 degrees here one night last week, so in they came. It has been warm the last couple of days so they have gotten to go out, but come back inside at night. We spoiled Dandy, our 3yr old female last winter. I have a daughter that is the same age, and Dandy got to be out of her enclosure alot to roam the house with her. So she is upset when she can't get out. The big guy we just got, named Diesel by my husband, doesn't seem to be too interested in us still. But I am sure he will come around. I did manage to find the winter mix grass at Lowes, so we are going to sow their entire lot with it, and also plant a bed of just it since it probably won't take this winter in the yard. What is funny though, I envision all the deer here in the mountains coming to feast on it in the winter. They won't know what to think!! Grass in the winter!! Thanks again... it's so fun sharing tort tales!!

I wonder if Diesal would warm up to you if you had food with you every time he saw you? I think that's what made our big girl seem to "bond" with me so quickly. She didn't love me, she loved my food! lol
She was in horrible shape when she got here & in fact the person who drove her to my house said he saw her eat some dog food that was spilled out in the back of his pickup truck. I think she was starving & that's why she ate that dog food.
I of course never fed her dog food but I've noticed after having her for 3 years, when she's happened upon a bite of dog food dropped in the lawn by birds, she's sniffed it then ignored it.

I know what you mean about them getting upset at us lol!
Ours is about to get upset with us. The Weather Channel is warning that a big Canadian cold front is on the way today & that we'll have unusually low temps for the next few days. Our girl is going to be forced out of her unheated dog house & into the heated mansion. I'm hoping that it hits in mid-afternoon as predicted, she'll go to the mansion on her own if it hits early enough.
Despite the problems we have sometimes with making her do what we want her to do, we've loved having her here. She's a wonderful pet.
btw I'm glad you found the winter grass seed! Our soil is horrible here, it's plain sand so it's difficult to grow any plants that aren't native to this area but the winter grass has done just great for us. I hope it does as well for you as it has for us.
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PHRatz

The other great thing about winter rye is that both the sprouts and mature grass are very thin, so it works well for both mature sulcatas and hatchlings who might be intimidated by heavy bermuda.

>>The other great thing about winter rye is that both the sprouts and mature grass are very thin, so it works well for both mature sulcatas and hatchlings who might be intimidated by heavy bermuda.
>>

Thanks for that. I've not had a hatchling but the way animals seem to just show up here.. ya never know. This is a good thing to keep in mind just in case!
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PHRatz