adult sulcata

Okay these might be a stupid questions, but:

Just out of couriosity how much does it cost to feed an adult sulcata tortoise every month? I have seen some 100+ pounds torts on Youtube and they seem to eat a lot.

For those with adult Sulcata with small yards in cooler climates, where and how to you house your tort in the winter months? Pics would be a big plus.

Thank you for the info.

The answers to these questions will vary a lot.

It costs me zero dollars to feed all of my adult tortoises, including my 5 sulcatas. I grow or scavenge all their food myself. What I feed them varies depending on the time of year. In spring and summer they get lots of mulberry leaves, grape leaves, spineless opuntia cactus pads, grass, and lots of other odds and ends. In winter when our rains come, the mulberry trees, grape vines and cactus stands go dormant, but the tortoises can graze on as many weeds and wild grasses as they want all day long. I keep grass hay out for them all the time too, and they eat it regularly, but I have that on hand for the camel and donkey, so I don't really "buy" that for the tortoises. A $16 bale of bermuda grass hay would last all of my tortoises about 4 months. I do pay for Mazuri, and I go through a 25 pound bag in about 2 or 3 months over the warmer months for about 2 dozen adult tortoises and a few juveniles.

Feeding an adult sulcata store bought grocery store greens does not seem feasible in my estimation. I once wanted to see how much a sulcata could eat because they seem like bottomless pits, so I bought a whole case of romaine. At the time, I had only 3 sulcatas ranging from 10-12", so just juveniles. Each one ate three entire large heads of romaine like it was nothing and then they shared a 10th. When the feast was all gone, they all walked over and started eating their grass hay, and I saw them continue grazing all day for the rest of the day. I don't know how many heads they could have eaten if I had kept giving it to them, but 10 heads didn't seem to put the smallest dent in their appetites. Now-a-days, I have a neighbor that owns a local restaurant. Every day she has a large wholesale size box of romaine trimmings from the salad fixin's. Sometimes there will be some grated carrot mixed in or a little cabbage. I bring this back, mix it half and half with grass hay and the entire box is gone in minutes. We're talking about 25-30 pounds of lettuce mixed with an equal part of grass hay by volume. Each tortoise consumes a pile larger than they are. I use fast food trays piled high for each tortoise and they eat it all up. If you figure a wholesale cost of about $1 a head of various grocery store greens, a single large adult could easily put away 20-30 heads a day. And that wouldn't be a very good diet for them.

What do you mean by "cooler climate"? I live in the high desert in Santa Clarita. 30 miles west of me, or 30 miles south of me, it is a much cooler climate. When my daytime high reaches 100 every day in the summer, it will be in the 70s in Oxnard or Marina Del Rey near the coast. Are you asking about coastal SoCal, or are you asking about someone from Vermont with frozen winters for 6 months of every year?

And where are you?

It costs me nothing to feed my 100 pound sulcata. He eats the grass, plants and weeds that grow in my yard. I don't harvest anything for him, except for cutting hibiscus and rose branches for him. Everything else he eats right off the plants. If I go on vacation, he takes care of himself. I'm in central California where things grow year round. Even with our mild winters, he still needs heat and shelter in the winter.

There are people who keep sulcatas in cool climates. They usually have a heated shed. I would think it would be fairly easy as long as it isn't a place where it snows a lot and nothing grows in the winter. Like Tom said, if you have to rely on grocery greens, it could get expensive. I think some people in cold climates have greenhouses to feed their sulcata.

My 110lb sulcata, Dudley, lives outside 24/7/365. It costs me nothing (like Big Charlie) because he eats grass and weeds. I suppose I could figure in the electricity to run the pump that pulls the water out of the ground to run the sprinklers that water the grass, but that would be too hard to isolate. I occasionally cut off a branch from the mulberry tree. He loves those leaves. And every so often I give him a branch of grape leaves.

Its a little more work in the northern states. I have trays that grow different kinds of weeds under full spectrum lighting. (the light does pull a bit of electricity) I also find that hay cubes from the farm store work great. $15 will last.. a month maybe? I don't pay attention on the frequency in which I buy them. Its a HUGE help to use them as filler between fresh greens and weeds. Even the greens I buy weekly and spend around $10-$15?. Of course this is during the winter months. I get to shut the grow light off during the summer and let my tortoise eat the weeds in her enclosure. I can then reduce the amount of food she gets then. She is prolly the easiest of all my pets to care for and the cost to keep her isn't much at all.