Winter coming up!! Need help with food

[Nicole edwards]

I have a one year old Sulcata. All summer I've been cutting grass and shreading it for him to eat but it's almost August and that means only a couple of more months left of grass. What could I start doing to get ready to feed him this winter? What does everyone else do?

 

[Jodie]

I grow as much as I can indoors, but a large variety of good stuff from grocery store (escarole, endive, spring mix, carrot and radish tops, kale, collard and mustard greens...), and supplement it all with Mazuri, ZooMed grassland tortoise food and herbal hay from tortoise supply.

 

[Speedy-1]

I have also slowly introduced Hay pellets , I nuke them in the microwave with a little water to soften them , then mix them in with the rest of his food !

 

[BrianWI]

I am going to start introducing orchard grass hay in October or so, hoping mine will eat it with Mazuri.

 

[Tom]

I have a one year old Sulcata. All summer I've been cutting grass and shreading it for him to eat but it's almost August and that means only a couple of more months left of grass. What could I start doing to get ready to feed him this winter? What does everyone else do?

Get some bermuda or orchard grass hay. Grad a handful, hold it over a tub of some sort and chop it into tiny little pieces with scissors. Then put the finely chopped pieces into some warm water for 30-60 minutes to re-hydrate it. Finally mix the re-hydrated grass hay in with the day's greens. It will all stick together if you keep the greens a little wet. Start with a very small amount of grass hay at first, and gradually add more. You can add this mix to fresh grass, weeds, cactus pads, leaves, or grocery store greens.

You can also use cubed grass hay pellets for horses, but make absolutely sure there are no other additives in the cubes, like molasses for example.

The ZooMed Grassland pellets basically do the same thing, but also add some more variety.

 

[Prairie Mom]

I grow a lot of food indoors too, but as my sulcata grows I'm finding it is extremely helpful to learn how to preserve grass and weeds for winter. A lot of leaves, grass, weeds etc can be dried and fed with other foods, dried and rehydrated, and frozen & thawed.

Here are some threads you may want to look through...
Recipe and food (tort version) -this is a link to a specific post in a thread about feezing garden leaves and vines.

Recipe and food (tort version) -this is a link that shows a daily feeding made specifically with frozen and dried natural tortoise food.

http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/my-young-sulcatas-winter-diet-worked.115259/ -gives a really good and detailed explanation about drying lawn clippings

http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/these-can-be-frozen-thawed-and-retain-good-texture.128563/ -more stuff can be frozen than you'd think