How to transition Sulcata to eat what he should be eating?

[Anne1787]

So- like a lot of tortoise newbies, when I got my baby sulcata I asked the specialty pet store people- who had their own Sulcatas! what I should feed him.
Like a lot of us I was told put mixed greens in there, no spinach, but other than that some store bought mixed greens were what I should be feeding him.
I had read a book and the book said hay, and all kinds of other things so I put the mixed greens in there with meadow hay and mazuri toroise diet and flukers tortoise diet, and I cut bermuda grass from my yard every morning and put that in there, and sprinkle the food with calcium every few days.

But all he ever eats is the mixed greens- nothing else. I tried removing the mixed greens and only offer the "healthy stuff" when he got older (he's now 10 months old) - but then he didn't eat for 3 days and I freaked out and started giving him the mixed greens again.

I found this forum and I've read the sulcata tortoise owner guide on here and have his entire habitat revamped, even got a solarmeter and temperature timers, and put him in the Arizona sun/shade area for a couple hours a day and soak him and upped his humidity etc.

I know the diet of only mixed greens is super bad for him and he's getting pyramiding and I just need advice on how to get him on the better food. I don't want to starve him by removing it completely. Even when I tried chopping it all up and add in the grass and hay all mixed in he just didn't eat very much those days.

I'll do whatever it takes - I just need to know WHAT to do- what's the right way to do this?

Did anyone else have this problem and how did you get your tortoise to eat what he should be eating?

Thank you all who are able to give advice. I want my guy (or gal) to be healthy and happy because I know we have many many years to go...

Anne

 

[Tim Carlisle]

How old is your tort? Very few younglings take to hay right off the bat. It's usually an acquired taste they develop later in life.

 

[Tom]

So- like a lot of tortoise newbies, when I got my baby sulcata I asked the specialty pet store people- who had their own Sulcatas! what I should feed him.
Like a lot of us I was told put mixed greens in there, no spinach, but other than that some store bought mixed greens were what I should be feeding him.
I had read a book and the book said hay, and all kinds of other things so I put the mixed greens in there with meadow hay and mazuri toroise diet and flukers tortoise diet, and I cut bermuda grass from my yard every morning and put that in there, and sprinkle the food with calcium every few days.

But all he ever eats is the mixed greens- nothing else. I tried removing the mixed greens and only offer the "healthy stuff" when he got older (he's now 10 months old) - but then he didn't eat for 3 days and I freaked out and started giving him the mixed greens again.

I found this forum and I've read the sulcata tortoise owner guide on here and have his entire habitat revamped, even got a solarmeter and temperature timers, and put him in the Arizona sun/shade area for a couple hours a day and soak him and upped his humidity etc.

I know the diet of only mixed greens is super bad for him and he's getting pyramiding and I just need advice on how to get him on the better food. I don't want to starve him by removing it completely. Even when I tried chopping it all up and add in the grass and hay all mixed in he just didn't eat very much those days.

I'll do whatever it takes - I just need to know WHAT to do- what's the right way to do this?

Did anyone else have this problem and how did you get your tortoise to eat what he should be eating?

Thank you all who are able to give advice. I want my guy (or gal) to be healthy and happy because I know we have many many years to go...

Anne

The food and housing is all explained here:

The Best Way To Raise A Sulcata, Leopard, Or Star Tortoise

I chose the title of this care sheet very carefully. Are there other ways to raise babies? Yes. Yes there are, but those ways are not as good. What follows is the BEST way, according to 30 years of research and experimentation with hundreds of babies of many species. Babies hatch during the...

tortoiseforum.org

Pyramiding is caused by growth in conditions that are too dry, not by the food. Stopping pyramiding in progress is much harder than preventing it in the first place. You need a large closed chamber and less time outside.

 

[Anne1787]

How old is your tort? Very few younglings take to hay right off the bat. It's usually an acquired taste they develop later in life.

He or she (don't know gender yet) is a little over 10 months old right now. I was told that he wouldn't eat hay as a youngling and I sort of thought he would eat it as he got older. But at 10 months they should eat everything right?

 

[Anne1787]

The food and housing is all explained here:

The Best Way To Raise A Sulcata, Leopard, Or Star Tortoise

I chose the title of this care sheet very carefully. Are there other ways to raise babies? Yes. Yes there are, but those ways are not as good. What follows is the BEST way, according to 30 years of research and experimentation with hundreds of babies of many species. Babies hatch during the...

tortoiseforum.org

Pyramiding is caused by growth in conditions that are too dry, not by the food. Stopping pyramiding in progress is much harder than preventing it in the first place. You need a large closed chamber and less time outside.

I increased humidity greatly once I altered the habitat according to your guide a couple months ago- but maybe I was too late to stop it completely. I'll do less time outside and keep his humidity up for the next year and a half and hopefully slow it/stop it as much as possible.

 

[Tim Carlisle]

He or she (don't know gender yet) is a little over 10 months old right now. I was told that he wouldn't eat hay as a youngling and I sort of thought he would eat it as he got older. But at 10 months they should eat everything right?

Mine never took to it till he was 4.

 

[Tom]

Mine never took to it till he was 4.

That sounds about right. I don't even introduce hay to them until they are around 12 inches, and they don't start eating it like food until months after that.