Hay

[dcoolguy68]

What kind of hay would be good for my baby sulcatas? I recently bought Orchard grass hay but i cant tell if they're eating it or not so i thought i would combine with another type of hay.. any suggestions?

 

[Laura]

How old are your babies? They have trouble eating dry hay as hatchlings. If you soak the hay or/and cut it up with scissors and sprinkle over thier greens.. they will get used to it as a food.. usually. Some only graze and like fresh..

 

[dcoolguy68]

yeah i cut it and soak it before i feed it to them

 

[Laura]

you can also try the 'shake and bake', put thier greens in a baggie, wet them first, then put the cut up hay in the baggie and shake it. the hay will coat the greens and they have no choice but to eat some of it. Mine prefer grazing the real thing. I can pick it and put in front of them and they wont touch it. Or vice/versa.

 

[dcoolguy68]

I'm trying the approach from sulcatastation.org that says to keep giving it to them until they eat it

 

[aka2tal]

I was able to turn my Sulcatas to Orchard Grass by mixing it with Romaine. Mix up 1/3 of Romaine with 2/3 Orchard Grass. Weekly use less romaine until they are eating all orchard, with Romaine still as just a treat. Hope this helps.

 

[Maggie Cummings]

What kind of hay would be good for my baby sulcatas? I recently bought Orchard grass hay but i cant tell if they're eating it or not so i thought i would combine with another type of hay.. any suggestions?

This is just me personally, but for baby Sulcatas I buy the chopped salad hay from carolina pet supply and sprinkle it over grocery store greens for the first couple of years. It gives them a better start. It smells sweet and is of a size that hatchlings have an easier time of it. But I stress that's just me, others try to feed hay right away. I don't try to feed regular hay until they are bigger. My Tony is just now 3 years old and I am just now offering hay and he has a much easier time of eating now that he and his mouth are bigger. He eats it with no problem now. When hatchlings are so little they stop eating when the act of eating is hard and hay is too hard for those small mouths. I also give them fresh grass and clover that I cut from my yard. But that's just me, I'm not one to follow the rules...<g>...HTH