Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I posted a couple of days ago on good diets for sulcatas. Well I got an excellent website. But the only problem is that we live in Indiana and it is only warm enough outside for the sulcatas a couple of months out of the year. So, how do I get or grow these different grasses they are suppost to eat? I could get hay pretty easy but I don't know how nutrious that would be. I was really surprised reading that website. Any suggestions would be great. Thanks,
Cara

Hi Cara,
good quality hay is as good as the grasses minus the water/moisture. The problem with hay of course is that not all sulcatas/leopards eat them readily.

But you can grow grasses inside with lights but i am not sure if you will be able to grow a lot in a short time.

Michael

You might also try a cold frame set on your lawn. It probably wont work for the whole winter but it will buy you some more time into fall and earlier in the spring.

Just in case there was any question. The cold frame would be used for extending the growing season of grasses NOT for housing the tortoise.

Most pet stores sell several kinds of dried grasses like bermuda, orchard, and timothy. They are in the rabbit section. Also www.carolinapetsupply.com sells really good quality grasses and seeds.
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TurtsandTorts Discussion Group
2 Russians (Harley and Marley)
2 RES (Sunny and Fatty)
2 Gerbils (Sydney and Vienna)
1 Cat (Abby)

hi cara,

if it turns out your tort is stubborn and won't go for the dried grasses, then you can grind up the grass (meat grinder or old blender), wet it and mix it in with their greens. you'd be surprised how well this works and how readily they'll switch over to the grasses.

matt

This is one of the reasons I recommend Mazuri Tortoise diet so often. I don't know how many time I've seen this kind of post where the keeper looks like they are going nuts trying to find the 'right' diet and it is totally unnecessary.

I'm sure you can find a good orchard or bermuda hay all year by you. Use that as a bedding and the clippings as a supplement with the mazuri tortoise diet and you've got it covered. You can also use dark leafy greens such as romaine, escerole, endive, collards... on occasion.

You can read a little more about the diet here
http://mazuri.com/

>>I posted a couple of days ago on good diets for sulcatas. Well I got an excellent website. But the only problem is that we live in Indiana and it is only warm enough outside for the sulcatas a couple of months out of the year. So, how do I get or grow these different grasses they are suppost to eat? I could get hay pretty easy but I don't know how nutrious that would be. I was really surprised reading that website. Any suggestions would be great. Thanks,
>>Cara
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Ed @ Tortoise Keepers
Trying to keep the fun in Chelonian care

My tortoises personally will not eat this or any dried tortoise food, probably because they are WC. I prefer to grow my own diet for them and use some supplemented stuff from the pet or grocery store.
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TurtsandTorts Discussion Group
2 Russians (Harley and Marley)
2 RES (Sunny and Fatty)
2 Gerbils (Sydney and Vienna)
1 Cat (Abby)

you can buy seed mixes at www.turtlestuff.com and grow them indoors, and trim off what you need to feed. They have different mixes for different types of tortoises, and there is one there that is good for sulcatas.