The Royal Court Taster

[NessiesNoob]

I have a couple of young Sulcatas and being new to the Sulcata, I check everything I feed them against online resources to make sure it is okay. My yard is probably 50-60% garden and 99.8% organic ( I give a slow-release, balanced fertilizer in March to help my yard wake up, though I didn't this year). A lot of what I grow is native to Florida and I have found a number of them on lists (Coreopsis, Beebalm, Salvias, etc). But there's quite a bit in my yard that I can't find on lists.

Enter the Royal Court Tasters.

An awesome (to me) benefit of living in Florida is a few times a year I get one of three gopher tortoises visiting my yard. They will stomp in and usually beeline toward a specific plant. Sometimes its the coreopsis, sometimes its gopher apple, sometimes it's just the St. Augustine grass. Once the most mature of the three came to take care of a dog dropping I had missed before going back to her den. This has me thinking and I want to bounce this idea off of more experienced Sulcata keepers, if the gopher tortoises are eating a plant in my yard, then it is probably safe for the Sulcata as well?

 

[Maro2Bear]

I’ll just jump in and say probably yes. That said, those Gopher Torts have grown up in these areas and over a long time have adapted to the food, sand, light, salt, etc of Florida. Whereas Sulcata are of African origin, and haven’t grown up with those foods.... I still think you’d be fine having a Sully roaming and eating the same grassy weedy areas as your local Gopher torts do.

 

[NessiesNoob]

I am in the center of the state, so salt isn't really an issue. I obviously won't be feeding my sullies dog droppings as that's probably a good way to introduce diseases. The gophers supposedly know what they need, nutrition-wise, and that's why they beeline to certain plants. I feel fairly confident that I can meet whatever need the feces provided without using it. Just as important as finding things to feed them (along with store bought foods) is making sure I don't have anything that will make them sick when I have them outside to roam. For example, I have milkweed for the monarchs and so far I have not seen the gophers eat it, but I make sure to steer my gals clear of it.

 

[Pearly]

Hi there and welcome from Texas! I envy your visiting gophers! That must be soooo neat to have them just come visit. One note of caution on dog poo though, if your pup is on heart worm prevention, which may contain Ivermectin and gets excreted in dog’s poo, it may be toxic to the torts if the tort eats that poop. This is something I had read on here, and @Yvonne G would know for sure, or someone who is on right now pls correct me if I’m misinforming @NessiesNoob here

 

[NessiesNoob]

We do do heartworm pills every few years or so, but not nearly at Vet recommended intervals. Those regular intervals were originally for outdoor dogs but got spread to all dogs to alleviate confusion (and maybe pad profits?). Our dogs are indoor dogs and if we do a heartworm dosage, it is in August when our skeeters are at their worst. All our vets have chastised us about this, except our current one who agrees with our reasoning. But I generally clean up after them. That old gal just found one I missed or that my kids didn't bother cleaning.