I fail to see how hay is the problem here. Hay is an excellent tortoise food for any adult of a grass eating species. I don't understand why you have a problem with feeding hay to tortoises. I've been doing it without any problem for literally decades, and so does everyone else I know. I don't know how you'd provide enough food for a giant species any other way unless you have acres of available pastures and the water and power to farm it.Recently I was lambasted for saying “That hay was not a good or great food.” UNTIL a new tort owner understands how much “food” said tortoise needs and will eat Daily, Weekly you are just about guaranteed said tortoise will be underfed.
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No, people that don't do research are the fools. It's too easy now to educate ones self. This forum used to be the first thing that would pop up when doing a search for tortoise care. Not sure if it still does. People that come here, are researching and found the forum. Those are not fools.A person's ignorance about a particular subject doesn't make that person a fool or an idiot. Once they are told the correct thing to do by someone with knowledge and experience, if they don't follow the advice and continue to do what is obviously not working, then yes, you have yourself a fool or an idiot. My observation. When I joined this forum years ago, I was not an idiot, just ignorant about tortoises. Now I feel glad that sometimes I can actually help someone by offering learned advice.
100% correct .... I COMPLETELY AGREE.All that still does not rule hay out as a good food source.
It just shows that there are so many ignorant fools out there that doesn't have a clue about tortoises and doesn't have a clue about using the Internet to do research.
That's what we find all the time on this forum about the care of tortoises. That's what this forum is about, educating anyone that will come here on what is the right way.
Instead of saying hay is bad when it isn't, explain that it should not be the only source of food.
I had the same issue with feeding "lettuce." I found that if I included the word lettuce when listing foods for new adoptive parents, they eventually used lettuce exclusively because it was easy. So I always listed other greens and never included the 'L' word.100% correct .... I COMPLETELY AGREE.
The issue I've seen over and over is that feeding hay becomes the way to feed out of laziness, and ease (which go hand in hand). I just think if people were made to feed other items and learn how torts interact with different variables (Temperature, Different Foods, Stress etc.) tortoise health would improve greatly. I hear ya ... Hay is a nutrient filled source of food that when fed responsibly is a "Fantastic" part of a tort diet. It's just in my experience it is NEVER fed responsibly but fed out of ease and the resulting product is a tort with serious issues.
This is exactly what I am trying to say. The life of a "Hay" eating farm animal doesn't exactly correlate to the life a tort needs for a proper life (in my opinion). That word "Hay" carries with it so many .... stereotypes I guess is the word. Even when the Tort owner doesn't have any "Farm Animals" they go to the feed store of "Farm Animals." They get info on all kinds of things that in my opinion are wrong and just another ignorant (about torts) person spewing Bull poo poo. This becomes how a very high percentage of how tort owners. The feed store in the local town even sells Sulcata hatch-lings every year. And who do you think they get there info, food from? .....For years.I had the same issue with feeding "lettuce." I found that if I included the word lettuce when listing foods for new adoptive parents, they eventually used lettuce exclusively because it was easy. So I always listed other greens and never included the 'L' word.