Hello! I'm new here and could use some advice on feeding

[Nancy C]

Thanks, everyone. I am worried about Agatha, the (Sulcata?) tortoise I rescued from getting squished in the street. There's a ruler behind her in the photo, so you can see she is not a hatchling; she's about 13" long. We are in the process of turning our SoCal yard into xeriscape, so I am eager to get Aggie to eat hay since the lawn is gone. I bought some Timothy hay for her, but she doesn't seem interested at all. Any tips on how to encourage tortoises to eat hay?

 

[Nancy C]

Here is another photo of my Aggie.

 

[Tank'sMom]

Do you have another pic? From the front?

 

[Dizisdalife]

View attachment 88436 Here is another photo of my Aggie.

Nancy, Aggie is not a sulcata, she/he appears to be a California Desert Tortoise. CDTs make great pets. Most of our tortoises don't take to eating hay right away. We trick them into eating it by mixing it with the foods that they eat until they recognize it as food and eat it without mixing. It may take months of tricking them until that happens. I prefer to feed orchard grass hay or bermuda grass. The timothy that I get in Southern Cal seems to have too much stem and not enough grass. The orchard grass is much softer. Also try re-hydrating it by soaking to soften it up for you tortoise.