We are often asked what sort of diet we provide. For the most part, we provide grass, weeds, and flowers. Then we add cactus, succulents, Mazuri Food products, and produce.
But how much produce and how often you ask? the answer might surprise you. Not even once per week with many delicious edibles.
Many foods you find at the grocery store in the produce isle carry high water content that proves to be too much for these desert tortoises and their tiny livers.
Five common dietary problems
- Not providing enough fiber
- Providing too much protein
- Giving fruit or other sugary foods too often
- Not providing enough calcium, or the right calcium/phosphorus balance
- Generally overfeeding the tortoise
Sulcata tortoises have evolved to deal with harsh life in a semi-arid environment, Where the only food available for much of the year is dry grasses and weeds. Sulcata tortoises require a very high-fiber, grass-based diet to stay healthy. If you feed the wrong foods to your tortoise, it will grow too quickly, develop a bumpy, pyramided shell, and may develop other health problems that could drastically shorten its lifespan.
Grazing tortoise species such as leopard and sulcata rely on beneficial bacteria in their intestines to help them digest and extract nourishment from the grasses that they eat.
If you give your tortoise large amounts of fruit, the acids and sugars in the fruit can actually change the pH of the tortoise’s digestive tract, and this pH change can cause the beneficial bacteria in the tortoise’s gut to die off. When large quantities of gut bacteria die, they release toxins that can cross the gut wall and enter the tortoise’s bloodstream, causing the tortoise to experience a form of Toxic Shock Syndrome that can be fatal.
Grasses and Hay 100% Of The Time!
Sulcata tortoises NEED access to grasses and hay on which to graze. The bulk of their diet should be from pesticide and herbicide-free grass and grass cuttings, cheatgrass, clover, edible flowers (nasturtium, geraniums, hibiscus, rose petals), and shrubs.
- Avoid feeding predominately alfalfa hay, as this is high in oxalates and can cause stone formation within the bladder, kidney failure and decrease life-span.
- Grass hays to offer include Timothy, Meadow Grass, Oat Hay, Orchard grass.
Warning! It Is Harmful To Give Your Torts Hay That Has Mold!
This Includes Food & Bedding!
Greens and Vegetables: 60% Of The Diet!
Leafy greens can be offered often. We suggest 40% of the veggie diet should include collard greens, kale, mustard, turnip, and dandelion greens. Limit greens that are high in oxalates, such as parsley, spinach, rhubarb, beet greens, and collard greens.
You have to be careful with Spinach, and collard greens. It is okay to feed these. But it should NOT be the only or bulk of the veggie greens! It is perfectly okay to feed these items one to five percent of the time. (1-5 times out of 100 times)
Other vegetables should be about 20% of the veggie diet. These can include grated raw carrots, winter squash, sweet potatoes, pumpkin, broccoli, corn on the cob; greens such as collards, dandelions, escarole, romaine, kale.
You have to be careful with kale, and broccoli. It is okay to feed these. But it should NOT be the only or bulk of the veggie greens! It is perfectly okay to feed these items one to five percent of the time. (1-5 times out of 100 times)
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Fruits: 20% Of The Diet!
Fruits should be fed sparingly, as a treat. These tend to be high in sugar and water content, both of which sulcatas are not accustomed to receiving in the wild.
Fruits that are appropriate to offer as treats include strawberries, chunks of organically grown bananas with skin, cantaloupe with rind attached, berries; peaches (no pits), apricots (no pits), pears, apples
Sulcata tortoises require a great deal of calcium in their diet to help them grow healthy bones and shells. The Sahel area of Africa where sulcata naturally occur is a semi-arid region that has calcium-rich soils. African Sulcata tortoises, therefore, get sufficient calcium by eating the grasses that grow in these calcium-laden soils.
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In choosing a calcium supplement, make sure you choose one that does NOT contain Phosphorus. Calcium (CA) and Phosphorus (P) are both necessary to build healthy bone tissue.
However, the phosphorus available in most food items is used much more readily by the tortoise’s body than calcium, so you really don’t need to supply any additional phosphorus to your tortoise.
We recommend using a multivitamin supplement twice weekly.
Baby and smaller sulcatas have a harder time eating the tougher grass and hay because of their less powerful jaws.
Sulcatas respond to bright colors, so always include at least one vividly colored food in your selection. This also means that you must keep inedible brightly colored things away from them!
What Is Mazuri All About?
Mazuri is a world leader in quality exotic animal nutrition for virtually every living exotic animal.
All I know is we trusted this food source even before our veterinarian told us it was one of the most important things to include in the diet of tortoises, especially desert species. Click here to go to the Mazuri website to learn more about this diet.
What Foods Should You Avoid?
Certain foods contain oxalic acid compounds that prevent the body from absorbing calcium from food. You should AVOID feeding your African tortoise the following foods regularly because of the oxalic acids in them:
- Spinach
- Kale
- Broccoli
- Mustard Greens
- Cauliflower
- Regularly is the keyword. If you have a small amount of any of these, you can feed it on occasion,
Avoid over-feeding your tortoise. Sulcata tortoises can experience a variety of health problems when they are fed the wrong food’s. Equally, they can also have problems when they are fed too much of the right foods. Overfeeding is the single biggest mistake that most tortoise keepers make. Reptiles have slower metabolisms than mammals like dogs and cats, so they really do not need to take in as much food as you might think.
You should also consider the activity level of your tortoise. Can he go outdoors and walk around a secure yard every day? Or does he stay indoors on a small tortoise table? If your tortoise is mostly sedentary, he doesn’t need to be fed every day. Really! Every other day is fine, even though he may look up at you with pleading eyes in between feedings.
Click here to read our blog page that lists Bad Plants For Animals.
Click here to see why Soaking Your Tortoises is important!
RECAP!
Good choices to use as the main bulk
- Collard, turnip, rape, and mustard greens
- Kale, cabbage, kohl rabi, chard
- Endive, Escarole, green-leaf, red-leaf lettuces
- Red or curly lettuces
- Arugula, rocket, ‘corn salad’, ‘lamb’s lettuce’
- Parsley, watercress
- Carrot or radish tops
- Sprouts
- Cactus pads
- Mushrooms
- Edible flowers
- Fresh leafy spices- basil, etc.
Good choices to use occasionally
- Papaya, figs, mango, kiwifruit, pomegranate and other ‘tropical‘ fruits
- Pineapple
- Melon, all kinds, including horned melon
- Strawberry
- Cactus fruit
- Cherries
- Bell peppers, any color
- Corn, especially on the cob
- Squash, pumpkin
OK choices to use sparingly for variety
- Iceberg, Romaine, Boston, bibb, and butter lettuce
- Spinach
- Celery
- Peas, bean pods
- Carrot (chopped or lightly cooked)
- Zucchini, broccoli, cauliflower
- Yams, sweet potatoes (shredded or lightly cooked)
- Blueberry, blackberry, mulberry
- Apple, pear, peach, plum, apricot
- Banana, grapes
- Cucumber
- Tomatoes
Bad food choices. For one reason or another, we should avoid the following foods…
- Hot peppers (too hot, they usually avoid these)
- Most citrus fruits- other than occasional naval oranges (while some acid is fine, too much causes problems)
- Fatty, salty, or sugary foods
- Processed foods in general, unless meant for tortoises
- Dairy products- milk, cheese, etc.
- Bakery goods- other than occasional bread to treat protozoans, etc.
- Tofu, soybeans
- Olives, avocados, artichokes (Fatty, and avocados are dangerous for birds, so MAY have some risk for reptiles)
- Root vegetables, such as beets, potatoes, etc.- other than occasional yams, sweet potatoes, and carrots
- Citrus!!!
Free Range Grazing Tortoises Will Encounter
- Dandelions, chicory, plantain (the yard plant)
- Purslane, clover, alfalfa, Timothy or other hay
- Grape leaves
- Mulberry and other fruit tree leaves, flowers, fruits
- Leaves from ‘forest trees’ other than Oak
- Mallow, rose, hibiscus, and pansy leaves
- Flowers from any edible flower- rose, pansy, violet, dandelion, etc.
- Cactus pads, fruits or flowers
- Mushrooms, fungi
- Worms, snails, slugs, millipedes, insect larvae, ‘bugs’
(Important: Avoid areas that may have been sprayed or treated with hazardous chemicals!)
Pet or feed store foods
- Prepared tortoise chows, especially Mazuri Tortoise Diet, Zoo Med Natural Grassland Tortoise Food, Repcal Food, or Zoo Med Natural Forest Tortoise Food.
- Freeze-dried plants, cactus, fruits or insects
- Fresh, dried, cubed, or pelleted hay
- Live or frozen baby or young mice and rats
- Live or freeze-dried worms, slugs, snails, crickets, ‘Superworms’ or other invertebrates
- Cuttlebone
- Feeder fish
- Canned, moist, or dry cat or dog foods (low fat)
Feed Your Tortoise Five Days Per Week Out Of Seven. Skip Any Two Days In Any Week.
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What is the best diet for baby Sulcata tortoises?
Hi.
For a baby sulcata I would feed Mazuri two times per week. It is just a few kibbles that are needed each time but this will bring the most health. We moisten the food for baby tortoises to make it easier to eat. Here is a link to show you the diet I recommend…
https://amzn.to/3gT7WyF.
We occasionally feed Repcal just to change things up. However, with the sulcata being a grassland species, I find Mazuri what I trust the most. Here is a link for Repcal incase you want to check it out… https://amzn.to/2Z6tn98
After that, we feed Opuntia Prickly pear, thistles, leafy greens, flowers such as hibiscus, and then maybe two or three times a month we will provide something like Papaya or squash.
You can feed any of these as much as the sulcata wants to eat at any time and in any order. I recommend five days our of seven days a week and it does not matter which two days you skip.
For the most part, we forage around our own yard for what this type of tortoise needs and oddly purchasing a bunch of foods from the grocery is not the best option. They would be far healthier on weeds than on produce.
Never feed the baby sulcata things like fruit as it turns into sugar much like a diabetic human. Try to avoid things like cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, and bok choy.
Do not feed too much cucumber as it has too much water for the desert species.
Thank you for the question, it is awesome to raise a sulcata. As you know they are really a remarkable species of animal. But many grow them with pyramiding shells. Most important is that skipping of a day or two each week as an overfed tortoise will grow wrongly.
Feel free to ask other questions as you grow with your sulcata!
Mazuri twice a week. How often should i feed leafy green from the grocery store? Do i skip days of feeding? Thank for any information
Hi Sarah,
You can feed leafy greens a couple of times per week. Believe it or not, skipping those two days per week is what is believed to be one of the things that can prevent pyramiding.
It can be really hard to watch the tortoise walking around looking for food so as a human I feel the need to toss some in. However, the tortoise is a wondering creature by nature and this is an important behavior for them to display in captivity.
We were told to think about a tortoise in the wild. Walking and walking. Literally, they nibble here and there dropping pieces of foliage along the way. In reality, they consume very little food that is all so low in nutritional value making the food we think we should feed them actually bad. In other words, do not be scared to pull some thistle and other weeds before purchasing the lettuces.
Thank you so much for asking the question! Good luck with your tortoise. Please let us know if we can help in any other way!
Thanks for the info. I usually mix a small bit of cat food pellets with Tiffany hay pellets, and feed it twice a week. Once a month, I feed fresh vegetables and a fruit. In general, my tort is free ranged on pasture grasses. No pesticides. I hope this is good. If not, let me know. Thanks
Hello and thank you. May I please have a reference to too much water content proving to harm the sulcata’s liver? I’m not doubting you, but since this is a paradigm shift for the rest of my community I just need to be able to back it up. The current notion has always been they’ll pee out the extra and it most won’t make it into their blood stream. And a few cucumbers does visibly increase watery excrement. Also, I’d like to understand how water harms the liver, does it wash out electrolytes or other nutrients or thin the blood?
Skip feedings twice a week?
Yes, skipping feeding two times allows for natural roaming to forage and is good for digestion.
Hi I was wondering how big the well started sulcata come? Is it best to start them off in a tank or can they immediately go outside?
Also, do they require any license or permit to own them?
All states have different rules so you will have to look your state up but normally sulcata do not need permits to house.
They do come small as quarters and grow very quickly so we suggest doing much more research before acquiring a new specimen. Thank you for writing and asking.
You have mustard greens in both, avoid and main foods to give them. Is it good for them or not??
I’m confused. In my research it says to feed kale, then NOT feed kale! Which is it? And what if my sulcata won’t eat the dry pellets? Winter is coming and I won’t be able to get him all the fresh weeds.
I have the same concern! Which is it, is kale good or bad???
After much research over the years, I would say kale is good. I like to pair this with other vegetables, flowers (if available) and a little fruit. There’s certain things they shouldn’t have so I normally do a quick google search before offering anything new.