The African Sulcata tortoise, also known as the African spurred tortoise, is a popular pet due to its lively personality, especially when young. Native to the semi-arid grasslands of Sub-Saharan Africa, these tortoises are the largest mainland tortoise species in the world. Understanding their dietary needs is crucial for their health and well-being.
Housing Sulcatas
Young tortoises are often kept indoors for the first few years to minimize risks of escape or harm from cats, birds, and dogs. A glass aquarium, plastic tub or trough, or other enclosures are often used to house young tortoises indoors. Substrates that can be used include aspen pellets, alfalfa pellets, or dirt. They live on dirt in the wild and can live on dirt inside. Make sure dirt used is from areas without pesticides or other contaminants that can be harmful to your tortoise. A hiding area needs to be provided, such as hollowed out wood logs.
Importance of UV Lighting and Humidity
Growing tortoises need direct access to UV lighting to properly grow and develop, and there are several ways of providing UV lighting for reptiles. Be sure to purchase lighting specific for reptiles, UV lights for fish or plants will not be sufficient. One type of light is a fluorescent bulb. These come as a long tube 18-48 inches long or in a small coil that screws into standard light sockets. Fluorescent bulbs provide little heat, so an additional heat lamp is usually also needed. The second type of lighting is heat plus UV lighting together in the same bulb (Zoomed Powersun). Any glass or plastic between the bulb and tortoise will block out the beneficial UV rays. No beneficial UV light gets through you home windows either, so placing them by a window has no benefit. There should be a cage temperature gradient during the day of approximately 85-95 F.
Shell pyramiding is a common problem in growing tortoises. Recent research show this condition has less to do with the diet and is much more associated with humidity in their environment. Indoor tortoise enclosures are often very dry due to the dry air in most homes along with heat lamps on the cage. In the wild tortoises spend much time in burrows underground where humidity levels are much higher. Humidity problems can often be resolved by soaking the wooden hide log in water 1-2 times a week.
Understanding the Sulcata Diet
What you feed your Sulcata is critical to its health and development. Sulcata tortoises evolved to deal with life in a semi-arid environment, where the only food available for much of the year is dry grasses and weeds. Sulcata tortoises require a very high-fiber, grass-based diet to stay healthy. If you feed the wrong foods to your tortoise, it will grow too quickly, develop a bumpy, pyramided shell, and may develop other health problems that could drastically shorten its lifespan.
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Common Dietary Problems
There are five common dietary problems that owners of sulcata tortoises typically encounter when feeding their tortoises:
- Not providing enough fiber
- Providing too much protein
- Giving fruit or other sugary foods to grazing tortoises like sulcata and leopard torts
- Not providing enough calcium, or the right calcium/phosphorus balance
- Generally overfeeding the tortoise
Avoiding Dietary Pitfalls
You are responsible for the health and well-being of your tortoise, so you must make the effort to feed the right foods, and in the right quantities. Here are a few suggestions to help you avoid the typical dietary pitfalls:
- Provide enough fiber: Base your tortoise's diet predominantly on grasses with some edible weeds, leaves, and flowers.
- AVOID high-protein foods: Never give your sulcata tortoise cheese or dairy products, cat or dog food, legumes (peas, beans, green beans, soybeans or soy-based products like tofu), grains and grain products (corn, wheat, barley, rye, etc.), or vegetables in large quantities. All types of produce grown for human consumption - even dark leafy greens - are too high in protein for sulcata tortoises to thrive on. However, SMALL quantities, given ONCE IN A WHILE as a treat, don't seem to be harmful. Provide in smaller mounts 3 times weekly Commercially available "tortoise diets" (such as Pretty Pets, Mazuri, Zoo Med, etc.)
- AVOID fruit: Even though sulcata love fruit, it's best NOT to give them any, if possible. Grazing tortoise species such as leopard and sulcata rely on beneficial bacteria in their intestines to help them digest and extract nourishment from the grasses that they eat. If you give your tortoise large amounts of fruit, the acids and sugars in the fruit can actually change the pH of the tortoise's digestive tract, and this pH change can cause the beneficial bacteria in the tortoise's gut to die off. When large quantities of gut bacteria die, they release toxins that can cross the gut wall and enter the tortoise's bloodstream, causing the tortoise to experience a form of Toxic Shock Syndrome that can be fatal.
- Provide the right amounts of calcium: Sulcata tortoises require a great deal of calcium in their diet to help them grow healthy bones and shells. In choosing a calcium supplement, make sure you choose one that does NOT contain Phosphorus. Calcium (CA) and Phosphorus (P) are both necessary to build healthy bone tissue. However, the phosphorus available in most food items is used much more readily by the tortoise's body than calcium, so you really don't need to supply any additional phosphorus to your tortoise. Rep-Cal is a good calcium supplement, and is available at many pet stores. However, a large bag of plain, powdered limestone (calcium carbonate) will probably cost you a lot less. You can find 50-pound bags of calcium carbonate at livestock supply stores or feed stores that sell poultry supplies. The best way to use Rep-Cal or powdered calcium carbonate is to sprinkle a small amount lightly over the tortoise's food on a regular basis. Avoid foods that prevent calcium absorption, such as spinach, kale, broccoli, mustard greens, and cauliflower.
- AVOID over-feeding: Sulcata tortoises can experience a variety of health problems when they are fed the wrong foods-but they can also have problems when they are fed too much of the right foods. Overfeeding is the single biggest mistake that most tortoise keepers make. Reptiles have slower metabolisms than mammals like dogs and cats, so they really do not need to take in as much food as you might think.
Specific Dietary Recommendations
- Grasses and Hays: These should form the bulk of the diet. Examples include AZ Cottontop, Bermuda, Blue Grama, Buffalo, Curly Mesquite, Deer Muhly, Orchard, and Timothy.
- Greens and Vegetables: Offer a variety of dark leafy greens and vegetables in moderation. Good choices include collard greens, kale, mustard greens, turnip greens, bok choy, and zucchini/squash leaves. Vegetables should be about 10-15% of the diet.
- Fruits and Flowers: Feed sparingly as treats due to their high sugar content.
- Commercial Diets: Commercial pelleted grass diets (Zoomed Grassland Tortoise diet) can be soaked in water and also fed.
Calcium and Vitamin D
Sulcata tortoises require a lot of calcium in their diet. Feeding them calcium rich foods will ensure that they get this vital mineral. Calcium supplementation is not required if a tort is eating a high calcium diet. Many plants, including oputunia cactus, dandelion greens, grape leaves, mulberry leaves, and many more are high in calcium. Some sully owners choose to supplement. One way to ensure that a tort has enough calcium is to leave a cuddlebone or calcium block in their enclosure. Ideally, the sully will nibble on the cuddlebone or calcium block when it needs calcium. Using a cuddlebone or calcium block is a good way to provide enough calcium without fear of overdosing the tortoise with too much of the mineral. Many owners use calcium powder if they believe that their tort is not getting enough calcium in their diet. Calcium powder can be sprinkled over food once or twice weekly.
Sulcatas need Vitamin D to absorb the calcium provided in their diet. The best way to ensure that your tort is getting the required Vitamin D is house your tort in an outdoor enclosure where it is free to bask in the sun at will. Another option is to allow the animal to graze outdoors daily in natural sunlight.
Water
Sulcatas are adapted to live in the arid climates of Africa where water sources are few and far between. They are able to obtain most of their hydration through the foods they eat but still need access to fresh clean water. Small Sulcatas can be soaked on a weekly basis for 30 minutes in a tub of shallow, lukewarm water, deep enough to cover the lower part of the shell.
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General Care Considerations
Housing
Sulcatas need a tremendous amount of room to roam and graze. They should only be kept indoors temporarily when the weather is cold or damp. Sulcatas like to move around and are very strong â they must have a large area in which to freely and widely roam. Whether housed indoors or out, Sulcatas roam about and are voracious eaters. Like many tortoises, they are also climbers. Care must be taken to assure they are not given the opportunity to climb things that are too steep resulting in their toppling over. Keep dangerous objects out of their area. Steps, dogs, raccoons, and children are among some of the dangers that must be guarded against.
Environmental Needs
Sulcatas need to be kept dry. A shallow water bowl, with sides low enough for the tortoise to reach into, should be available at all times if there is no wallow available. Tortoises do not swim and can drown easily. Indoor housing must include both basking and cooler retreat areas, and a den box in which to burrow. An area for feeding and a shallow water dish must also be provided. Daytime temperatures during much of the year should range from 85F-105 F (29-40 C) during the day. Sulcatas enjoy burrowing and are very good at doing so. When placing fencing, keep in mind that sulcatas will dig/burrow and could dig out of their enclosure.
Health
If at any time your tortoise is overly lethargic, not eating, or displaying other signs of illness, it is important to have him/her evaluated by a veterinarian with experience treating reptiles. The most common health issue for sulcata tortoises is poor diet and/or husbandry (environment and living conditions). They also commonly have calcium deficiencies, respiratory disease, or high protein.
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