Feeding Babies vs. Feeding Adullts? (Looking for advice.)

[DaveRoth]

I was wondering if anyone has any advice on feeding baby torts vs. adults. Especially the sulcata.

I have a baby sulcata and it simply will not eat grass. It likes some weeds, clover, kale, etc. It also likes carrots, but I've found it's best not to feed it carrots very much. I also sprinkle his food w/ some reptile calcium powder sometimes.

But I can't get the little guy (girl?) to eat grass. I've tried several types. Maybe in time it will.

Thanks,
David

 

[Yvonne G]

Baby tortoises usually won't eat grass. This is just fine. They don't need grass to survive. You can feed all the other stuff that you've been feeding and if you really feel he needs the grass, you can cut it up real small with the scissors and mix it in with the other foods. When he gets to be a bigger tortoise, he will eat grass with gusto. I don't usually feed carrots to my tortoises. I don't feel that they would ever come across them in the wild, and I have it in the back of my mind that they have too much sugar in them (don't really know if this is true, its just something I have stored away in there).

 

[Maggie Cummings]

Also, feed a hatchling twice a day, Sulcata hatchlings, about as much as they will eat in 20 minutes. I always cut grass and add it to get them used to it.

 

[Tom]

Try this:
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/for-those-who-have-a-young-sulcata.76744/

Don't give up. Introduce it in small amounts, finely minced and mixed with other foods. It may take a month or two of the tortoise ignoring it.

 

[erdavis]

Mixing it in small amounts with other foods and slowly adding more grass to it works well. I got my sully to start eating grass by literally blending his favorite weeds and spring mix in with grass and now he loves grass. For a treat every once in a while I will still do this for him (with some mazuri now too) and he LOVES it and prefers this over everything.