How much food and yard space - is there some kind of formula?

[Imara6mara]

Hello everyone,
So I've had Pipsqueak for over a year now. We live in Thailand, and when my boyfriend found her (or him) in the woods, I knew literally nothing about tortoises. This forum got me started and I found all the info about *what* to feed. So in the last year, I've basically just been increasing the amount of food I give gradually. She lives outside 24/7 (it's hot & humid here year-round), and she keeps the grass eaten down to the ground. We've had to expand her enclosure twice already, and need to do it again because the grass can't keep up with her consumption!

When I lived in the states, we had horses, and there was a general rule about having one horse per acre to provide enough grass. Is there any kind of general rule like this for sullies? S/he has been growing steadily, eats like a monster, poops like a horse, and has been to the vet's to be wormed once when I found worms once. A very healthy little tort. I just want to make sure a) I'm not giving too much food and b) she's getting enough food.

I'll post some photos of her so you can see the growth from around when I got her and now more recent.
- First photo with her house was taken on 20 Dec 2017
- Second photo with her house was taken on 23 Jan 2019 (so about 13 months of growth)
- one bath time photo just 'cause she's so cute <3

Thanks for your input, everyone!
Mara & Pipsqueak

 

[Maro2Bear]

Looks great. Throw some substrate inside his house so he has something to dig into . Maybe cover the entrance as well so it feels more like a nice safe burrow.

Space.....and grassy area. As much as you can safely fence off. More yard = more grass = happy and full Sully.

Happy Torting in Thailand

 

[Imara6mara]

Thanks Maro2Bear!
I don't keep any substrate in the house because (you might be able to see in the second photo) she's already dug a burrow *under* the house. She only goes *in* the house if it starts raining too hard or to munch on her cuttlebone - keeps it dry in there.

I'm just wondering if there's some kind of formula (like there is for horses) that will assure me that the grass should be able to keep up with her if it's a certain size. And not just having to bother my boyfriend to expand it over and over again!

 

[Maro2Bear]

Aaaagh. I see the burrow now. The best thing to do is block off areas of “pasture” and heavily seed and let it grow up. Then open up and let Mr Sully graze there while you block off another area. No different than sheep or ciw or horse grazing.

Your Sully looks great. Your rainy humid hot climate is perfect.

Good luck, post more pix.

 

[Yvonne G]

Just like with your horse, you need pasture management - that is, you have the animal on one pasture for a week, then move it to the other pasture, while watering the first pasture. You rotate the animal back and forth weekly and this gives the pastures a chance to grow. I used to rotate Dudley between three pastures, but once he realized there was more to his world outside that fence he kept breaking down the fences to get to the other yard. So now his three pastures are one big pasture. He has about 2600 square feet of established Bermuda grass pasture. He keeps it trimmed and the only part I have to tend to is the edges where I run the Weedeater about once a month.



I've left a partial fence on the right so he has to walk around it to get to the rest of the pasture. More exercise.

 

[Imara6mara]

Thank you, Yvonne and Maro2Bear = that's really helpful!!
Mara & Pipsqueak