This is a matter of experimentation. Feed your tortoise and watch how much it eats. If there is an amount left over, you are feeding too much. Reduce feedings when this occurs. Once your animal becomes larger, it will require greater amounts of food. However, by this time, you should have a grazing area where the animal can decide for itself when enough is enough. To give you an idea, I have a 75 pound male whom I feed two to three zuchini or yellow squash along with a head of romaine lettuce at a single feeding. Then, one day later, I would feed him a bushel of kale, twenty or so dandelion leaves, twenty or so hibiscus leaves, and an apricot. Immediately after consuming all of this, he goes on his merry way, consuming every grass tip that catches his eye. He also consumes grape leaves on the southern corner of my yard in the morning when he suns himself.

With all of this in mind, you should be able to come up with a feeding regimin that works for you and yours. Sometimes, tortoises will be finicky and unwilling to eat. This is generally sign that they've eaten too much. Don't be alarmed. There is very little chance that your sulcata will starve to death. Keep in mind that in the wild, they often experience droughts that last months at a time. They tend to gorge themselves during the rainy season (when there is one) or whenever a food source is plentiful, then retreat from the dry heat in their burrow, sometimes for months on end. I'm certainly not suggesting refraining from feeding for so long a period, as replicating natural conditions in captivity is impossible, nor is it necessarily desirable. Just keep in mind that reptile metabolism is much different than that of mammals, so their requirements are not what one would generally think.

T.G.

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