Can baby Sulcata tortoise eat centipede grass?

My little guy has a healthy appetite, I want to take him outside for some sun tomorrow. I have clover and centipede grass in the yard, no pesticides or chemicals. If he goes to munching on the grass is it safe? I know grass is their main diet, I don't know if all grasses are made equal.
Thank you

Hi Jay!

Disclaimer:

Don't trust me, trust someone ore experienced with actual, successful ownership long-term, I'm on month 4 or so (other reptiles not withstanding since grassland herbivore tortoises are so much different) , but...

Offhand I'm not seeing any immediate warnings about common name: Centipede grass, but let's see if anyone else weighs in.
I think it's fine, but kine needed tricking to even start eating St.Augustine at first (rubbing cactus slime on it to ween him on, and cutting it very fine so he didn't label its smell as a thing he can't bite thru and start ignoring it!).
Babies sometimes just ignore grass at first, but owners concerned about

I live in Florida and as long as my couple of experienced friends here have made a concerted effort to eradicate known poisonous plants, plus maybe even "only in moderation" plants that they visibly like too much (in my case passionflower) then they don't get surprised by sick or dead sulcatas outside from wrong grass or clover-like weed ingestion, hehe.

Real clovers are great from what I understand, but make sure it's actual clover, because there are very similar-looking weeds that I've heard aren't great in abundance.
Again though, I have never had a veteran friend say his tort up and died because it ate a fake clover, hehe.
They're being used as organic lawn mowers here (albeit by caring herp owners).
I like you are as vigilant as I, though. I think you have a lucky little buddy with your concern for detail.

I couldn't believe how many l little, harmful man-made bits of artificial garbage were in my yard, though! I hadn't even noticed ones I'd missed cleaning up until I took a 3 month old sulcata for a walk. He immediately spotted every piece of plastic and foil ad attempted to reach for them. I'm surprised I don't hear about more deaths related to this, but I see people freaking out and rescuing them from eating these items frequently... poor little innocent things.
We can ruin them with consumer products just like human, African cultures' attraction to them, I couldn't help but think (remembering an 80's movie about a Coke bottle, and seeing Watusi wearing Disney wear) what with them being from the sub-Sahara Sahel.

Ultimately there are more tortoise-specific veterans here to answer better, but I saw no one had yet.

I'm still learning about grassland tortoises around which much more complex, controversial and even erroneous FAQ's surround, so take a consensus rather than one source, no matter its accolades, and keep an open mind as our young primate minds and technology catch up with their prehistoric gut enzymes, little understood GI flora, reactions in their totally different guts etc. and so-on, contrasting many simpler-to-feed and more-understood omnivore cousins. I'm discovering topics about such tortoises are more complex and even controversial & cutting-edge than any other herp I've owned.

one of my classic side-note tangent rants follows:
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For example when it comes to an overall diet (rather than a walk or a quick snack), grassland tortoises depend on special bacteria in the gut which are a real game-changer compared to animals which don't. Animals with a foregut ("multiple stomachs" like cow) are more well-understood and more thoroughly studied on microbial level (some of them are known destroy counter-active "anti-nutrients" like phytic acid I'm only now hoping tortoises do...and if they do, many "no-no's" and precautionary statements meant for other species don't apply to ours!). Phytic acid may be very important to avoid for pyramiding of the shell or it may get destroyed in the gut by cellulose-eating bacteria or even some specialized phytate-destructive E.coli bacteria like they discovered and started feeding to animals without foreguts or existing gut flora, like pigs to improve electrolyte absorbtion.. there's just no one I trust 100% yet on these topics regarding tortoises like sulcata. When Kenan of kampkenan.com says "Scientists don't fully understand all factors behind pyramiding in sulcatas" he's right, and anyone certain about one factor being the sole culprit is going on isolated experience or parroting FAQ's from a favorite source. Studies rarely occur which assess nutrients going in and then coming out of herbivorous grassland tortoises to even know their modes of digestion, like whether or not they have specific flora which deal with anti-nutrients feared for robbing electrolytes... but scholar.googe.com is growing by the year on tortoise topics

Jay1718 said:

My little guy has a healthy appetite, I want to take him outside for some sun tomorrow. I have clover and centipede grass in the yard, no pesticides or chemicals. If he goes to munching on the grass is it safe? I know grass is their main diet, I don't know if all grasses are made equal.
Thank you

Click to expand...

Centipede grass should be fine for your sulcata.

It is in the Poaceae family of grasses which also includes Bermuda grass and Poa annua. All are fine sulcata food.

Thank you both for your responses! I will start throwing some clippings in his feed.