grown sulcata with diarrhea from spring grass

Shedon's mom

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Hello All, thanks for having this forum, I read it often as we are new to this. We inherited a grown Sulcata tortoise from a grand-nephew who lost interest. We have a home in Colorado with cold winters, not ideal for the tortoise. The good thing is that our place has a good fenced yard with a couple of acres for roaming.

We adopted Sheldon in the fall; he is pyramided and was about 21 pounds at 6 (?) years of age. We were worried about trying to hibernate him over the winter due to concerns about his health, so we kept him awake. He wintered in our laundry room with a heating pad, UVB light overhead and heat lamps (even our laundry room can get cool in winter). We kept his temperature about 85 F and fed him a mix of fine hays (commercial mixes for rabbits and guinea pigs) mixed with cactus and fresh greens, trying to avoid those which are not good for them which we learned from this forum. Occasionally we sprinkle on reptile mineral supplement. He weighs nearly 25 pounds now and stayed awake and active through the winter. On warm sunny days > 55 F outside we would put him out to take his laps in the yard, and on days that were too cold to go outside, he could walk in the house for a bit. We soak him in a shallow bath once a week. He has stayed really vigorous and active through the winter.

Anyway, spring has sprung here and he has been able to go outdoors every day for at least the last two weeks due to the temperatures being high enough. After the long winter, our yard contained the old half dead grass and some weeds which he was eating. We have had several days of spring rain, though, and the grass has grown like crazy. Yesterday I noticed he was having a great time really trucking around the yard and was feeding a lot on the fresh grass and weeds.

Overnight and this morning he has now had multiple areas of diarrhea around his fibrous stools from the sudden diet change to too much rich grass. This morning he refused to go outside which is unlike him (he usually walks from the laundry to the back door on his own to go out). He is in the laundry room hiding on his warm mat and I am wondering how quickly he might get dehydrated ....and also, how do we keep him from overfeeding in the future?

Also - one other diet question - grazing all day on lawn grass and occasional weed seems like a really low nutrition diet to me, how is this any better than only feeding a tortoise romaine lettuce?? But when he grazes all day it seems crazy to supplement him with other food...

Interested in any thoughts....
 

Yvonne G

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Sulcatas don't hibernate, so Sheldon is very lucky that you decided to keep him up this past winter. Most of us who don't live in climates with Africa-like winters, provide heated shelters for our sulcatas in the winter. I have a 110lb sulcata named Dudley, and he has an insulated, heated shed. He has access to his yard winter or summer, and if it's cold when he goes out, he turns around and goes right back inside. You can see Dudley's shed here:

https://tortoiseforum.org/threads/dudleys-rebuild.111350/#post-1034676

Dudley's pasture is Bermuda grass. The grass is dormant in the winter, but that's what he eats. . . dead, brown grass. I occasionally toss him a branch off the mulberry tree, or a branch off the grapevine. In the spring, many, many edible weeds spring up in his pasture. Weeds and grasses are what their bodies have evolved to live on.
 

Bambam1989

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1st. Sulcatas don't hibernate.

I doubt the grass itself gave your tort diarrhea. You may want to properly ID your weeds though, some are toxic and some types can give a tort diarrhea (sticky weeds for one).
To prevent dehydration from the Diarrhea, you can give him 20+ minutes soaks in warm water every day until his stool his back to normal. Have you had a fecal test done? A parasite load may cause diarrhea also.
Grass and safe weeds are very nutritional in comparison to lettuce. Others with more knowledge on nutritional facts like @Will can explain this better.
Grazing on grass and weeds all day is what these torts do. No need to worry about him overfeeding.
 

Shedon's mom

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Oct 4, 2017
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Colorado
1st. Sulcatas don't hibernate.

I doubt the grass itself gave your tort diarrhea. You may want to properly ID your weeds though, some are toxic and some types can give a tort diarrhea (sticky weeds for one).
To prevent dehydration from the Diarrhea, you can give him 20+ minutes soaks in warm water every day until his stool his back to normal. Have you had a fecal test done? A parasite load may cause diarrhea also.
Grass and safe weeds are very nutritional in comparison to lettuce. Others with more knowledge on nutritional facts like @Will can explain this better.
Grazing on grass and weeds all day is what these torts do. No need to worry about him overfeeding.
Thank you for the reply! He is all better now, actually was better the following day after my other post Good idea about running a fecal exam.
 

Shedon's mom

New Member
Joined
Oct 4, 2017
Messages
17
Location (City and/or State)
Colorado
Sulcatas don't hibernate, so Sheldon is very lucky that you decided to keep him up this past winter. Most of us who don't live in climates with Africa-like winters, provide heated shelters for our sulcatas in the winter. I have a 110lb sulcata named Dudley, and he has an insulated, heated shed. He has access to his yard winter or summer, and if it's cold when he goes out, he turns around and goes right back inside. You can see Dudley's shed here:

https://tortoiseforum.org/threads/dudleys-rebuild.111350/#post-1034676

Dudley's pasture is Bermuda grass. The grass is dormant in the winter, but that's what he eats. . . dead, brown grass. I occasionally toss him a branch off the mulberry tree, or a branch off the grapevine. In the spring, many, many edible weeds spring up in his pasture. Weeds and grasses are what their bodies have evolved to live on.

Thanks Yvonne, and yes since receiving the tort we have been learning about their not hibernating. There is a lot of conflicting info out there on that topic. The previous owners had been instructed at pet store to put him in a closet every winter until spring, so there is much much misinformation out there about this species. Its no wonder he is so pyramided. We have learned a lot from this forum and appreciate all of the advice (in contrast to Meatball). Thanks for the thread about your shed. We are working on a hide box design right now to build soon this summer (evenings are cool here even in summer) and in the meantime, he is out all day and indoors at night where he can be kept warm. Good to hear that there are owners who can give their torts good quality life in the cold climates. He is a wonderful creature and we are trying to do the right thing for the animal despite his not having been raised in his native habitat or climate.
 

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