Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My Sulcata, Donald, has outgrown his indoor 'cage'. He is five years old and about 11 inches. I am going to build him an outdoor pen in the next week or two, have been trying to get grass growing in that area, but in the meantime I have made him a temp pen with chicken wire in a sunny spot where I can see him from the house. He loves it out there and doesn't want to come in at the end of the day. There is a bit of grass but he has eaten it down low. He has some timothy hay out there as well. There are some daylilys in containers that he has figured out how to climb up to. But now he's started eating sticks and old dried acorns. Today he was straining to poop so I put him in the tub with a bit of water. Still straining, so figured I had to help him. I had to pull numerous sticks from his butt before he could finish his poop. Boy, the things we do for our animals! So now I don't want to put him out in the little pen anymore. Now telling how many more sticks are still in him or what kind of damage they might do.

Anyone else ever have this 'problem?' Here's a pic of Donald eating a dry leaf.

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Amy Claiborne

Don't let them take your wasted time. J.T.

Hi Amy,

A hungry sulcata will eat just about anything as you are finding out now. When I lived in CT in the early 1970's I had the first adults in the US and they literally ate me out of house and home during the winter months. Don't know where you live, but if you have access to pumpkins, they love them. Also the green and yellow summer squash that end up looking like small baseball bats are no problem for them. With the above items, just smash them on the ground to break them open, and the tortoise will do the rest. If you wish, you could cut them open, but smashing works fine. You can also keep one entertained for a fairly good amount of time by giving it a big head of cabbage.

I used wheat straw as bedding in those days, and often heard them crunching it up and eating it when they were hungry if there wasn't any other food available.

Also, your tortoise could break that chicken wire and escape if you aren't pretty vigilant. I know this from experience. One of my females about 13" long pushed a hole right through my similar fencing to get to some apples which had fallen on the other side. There was a piece of the fencing laying on the ground 5-6 feet away totally broken off from the rest of the fence, leaving a nice hole. Several days later, I found her about a mile and a half away.

Thanks. Yeah, I figured out he'd better have something better than sticks around to eat. I moved his little pen to a weed patch and he's been happy as pie! I'm in N. Florida. Still gets too cold much of the winter. I do plan to build him a real outdoor pen, but maybe not until spring.
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Amy Claiborne

Don't let them take your wasted time. J.T.

I concur with Zovic the chicken wire comes with a big warning. Ive seen some of mine shread some 2x4 game wire fence like it wasent anything. Sulcatas are like garbage disposals and anything in ther pen can and will be devoured. They will pass most anyting they eat but keep their pen clean of things that arent good for them. A Sulcata will pick most pens clean so just rake the pen till clean or make something big and bullet proof. Feed him some green alfalfa hay soaked in water and throw some hen laying calcium on top. After it passes rake the cakes and enjoy the live of tortoise care!!