Sulcata tortoises often go several days without eating in their natural environments, due to conserving water as well.
Captive goats must be provided with a diet high in fiber such as hay and grasses, while also receiving fresh vegetables and fruit as snacks.
Make sure any vegetables fed to baby tortoises are chopped into bite-size chunks that they can chew easily, and avoid giving cabbage as it contains oxalates that prevent calcium absorption.
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Vegetables
Sulcata tortoises are natural grazers, so it is essential that their diet include an array of vegetables. Greens should make up most of their food source; however, fruits or flowers such as hibiscus flowers or dandelion blossoms as well as cooked sweet potato squash corn can all make welcome treats!
Other good vegetables for tortoises to consume include radish tops, turnip greens, carrot tops and kale. Be wary of providing any greens high in oxalates that could block calcium absorption resulting in metabolic bone disease; one such food that may do this is cabbage.
A healthy sulcata should receive 10% of its calorie requirements from commercial foods designed for tortoises available from pet stores, though some keepers overfeed these commercial products to their tortoises. We still don’t know the long-term health implications associated with an overly reliance on commercial food sources like this one.
Hay
Sulcata tortoises are grazing animals and one of their primary food sources is hay. Timothy or alfalfa hay will provide adequate nutrition to your tortoise, without fertilizers and pesticides; you can also offer your tortoise other sources, like clover, Bermuda grass (Cynodon dactylon) and lawn fescue (Festuca arundinacea).
Zoos often feed sulcata tortoises a diet that closely replicates their natural environment, including greens, hay, and tortoise diet pellets.
Baby Sulcata Tortoises must be fed a well-balanced diet consisting mainly of hay and vegetables, with fruits occasionally added for variety and to treat your tortoise as they grow older. Avoid overfeeding; reptiles have slower metabolisms than mammals so don’t require as much food. A long and happy life awaits these delicate reptiles when fed a nutritious, well-rounded diet!
Fruit
Baby Sulcata tortoises should consume small amounts of fruits and vegetables as part of their diet, with no more than 10% coming from these sources. Fruit should only be given in small pieces once or twice every week due to acids and sugars present that could alter its pH in its stomach, killing off beneficial bacteria necessary for proper digestion and absorption of nutrients.
Do not feed your tortoise cabbage and other brassica vegetables as these contain goitrogens that may lead to an enlarged thyroid gland. Also try not to give him fruit high in citric acid or phosphorus content as this could interfere with calcium absorption.
Sulcata tortoises found in the wild graze on vegetation such as grasses and vegetation for their primary diet; thus their captive food should mirror this diet in many respects. Provide your pet with dark leafy greens and other nutrient-rich veggies each day such as collard greens, kale, turnip greens, bok choy carrots sweet potatoes or squash for best results.
Water
Sulcata tortoises are hardy desert creatures and do well when kept as captive pets. Provide ample shade and a heated hide box to provide respite from harsh sunlight and they will flourish rapidly and stay healthy. Outdoor environments should provide adequate shelter against extreme temperatures for them as well.
Make sure your tortoise has an easy-to-clean and dust-free substrate in their enclosure, such as orchid bark, cypress mulch, newspaper or even dirt. Avoid synthetic carpets which could potentially harm their health if consumed.
Adult Sulcata tortoises require only minimal nutritional needs as adults. A diet consisting of vegetables and fruit should be offered occasionally; some greens such as kale and spinach are high in oxalates which may interfere with calcium absorption, so only feed these veggies occasionally to your reptile. Acceptable vegetables include carrot tops (without roots) and dandelion greens as staples; watermelons and cantaloupe can provide additional water sources, though such treats should not become staples of their diet.
