# how old should my sulcatas be to start feeding them grass and hay?



## moswen (Sep 25, 2010)

I'm still feeding them greens and other leafy items, as I was told when I joined this forum however-long-ago-it-was... But my little mos is over a year old now and my little yana and fina are quickly approaching a year (okay, really I think they're about 8-9 months old) and old man winter is showing his frosty face in oklahoma! So should I buy hay this year, or start growing my sulcata seed mix again, or none of the above? What's the age for hay and grass?


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## Yvonne G (Sep 25, 2010)

You can start to incorporate a bit of clean grass and weeds into what he normally eats. I usually allow them to start grazing on their own, and if they DO graze when outside, I cut back on the greens. If they DON'T graze, then I cut some grass with the scissors and add it to the greens.


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## Maggie Cummings (Sep 25, 2010)

In my experience young tortoises won't eat hay. They will eat grass and should eat it but they won't eat hay until they are 5 or 6 years old. I'd plant the Sulcata seeds again...HTH
But you could cut it up small (a hassle) and wet it and sprinkle lightly over the greens and MAYBE they will eat hay. But I wouldn't worry about it for a few more years yet...


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## moswen (Sep 25, 2010)

Thanks maggie and yvonne, I value your experience and knowledge!


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## Missy (Sep 25, 2010)

Tank is 2 and he has been eating hay for a while now. First thing in the morning I put some in and he is hungry so he eats it. I let him graze or give him other stuff a couple hours later.


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## Az tortoise compound (Sep 25, 2010)

We introduce grass right away, cut up and sprinkled in spring mix. When they get moved outside around 2-3 years old (depending on size) they pick up a taste for hay when they see the other torts eat it. They already had the taste for Bermuda now it's just dried a bit. Really in the end, a hungry sulcata will eat what's in front of it.


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## Tom (Sep 25, 2010)

Ditto what ATC said. I usually start the dried hay when they are around 10-12". Mine eat cut up grass mixed in with greens from day one.


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## moswen (Sep 26, 2010)

ok. i used to do the cut grass with greens at first but i kind of quit doing that as my collection of home grown foods multiplied... i guess i will have to start again though as my grape vines and fig tree are too large to bring indoors...


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## Tom (Sep 26, 2010)

In all honesty, when my adult sulcatas were around 7 or 8, I plunked down a big flake of dry Bermuda grass for the first time, and they all came over and started munching on it like it was their favorite food ever. Some just take to it. I've had other torts that needed a bit more "coaxing".


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## tortoiserescue (Oct 1, 2010)

Just curious. All my sulcatas eat hay - do you stop feeding them all other foods once they eat that? I have been supplementing every other day or third day with greens but I'd like to quit doing that. We have lively patches of dandelions in the spring but no one around here has grass.


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## Yvonne G (Oct 1, 2010)

tortoiserescue said:


> Just curious. All my sulcatas eat hay - do you stop feeding them all other foods once they eat that? I have been supplementing every other day or third day with greens but I'd like to quit doing that. We have lively patches of dandelions in the spring but no one around here has grass.



It would help a lot if you had a mulberry tree.  They really love those leaves.

My sulcata only grazes on the grass in his pen, which is Bermuda grass. So, I'm thinking that if you're feeding your sulcatas grass hay, its probably enough and there would be no need to supplement. That's all he's been eating for the last 10 years or so...with the occasional branch cut off the mulberry tree. During the winter, the grass goes dormant and I still don't give him anything else to eat. He eats his fill of the dead grass and is satisfied and healthy.


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## tobibaby (Oct 2, 2010)

mine is a month or 2 and when i take him out he eats the dry grass and green grass is that ok??? i just let him be when he is outside thinking he knows what he is doing..


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## Tom (Oct 2, 2010)

tobibaby said:


> mine is a month or 2 and when i take him out he eats the dry grass and green grass is that ok??? i just let him be when he is outside thinking he knows what he is doing..



I've always done that too. Should be fine.


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## Half Decaf (Oct 3, 2010)

Do SDT's take to mulberry leaf? I pass by a tree on my evening walk. I'm sure the owner wouldn't mind if I pick a few...


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