How much greens should an 18lb sulcata eat a day?

[AshleeSparling]

He's a bottomless pit. He refuses to even try mazuri LS. I put cucumbers in it, he just picks them out and when their to small to pick out he doesn't even eat those. He will eat 3 heads of lettuce and a whole lb bag of kale a day, but I feel that's to much. How much should I feed him?

 

[wellington]

It's not too much it's too wrong. You have to get a bigger and better variety of foods. Too much kale is bad and lettuce is mostly water and little nutrition.
Orchard hay, grass, cactus. If you have to do grocery greens, use arugula, endive, escarole, dandelion can be found in stores. Find Mexican grocery stores if possible they usually carry the cactus and different greens

 

[EppsDynasty]

He's a bottomless pit. He refuses to even try mazuri LS. I put cucumbers in it, he just picks them out and when their to small to pick out he doesn't even eat those. He will eat 3 heads of lettuce and a whole lb bag of kale a day, but I feel that's to much. How much should I feed him?

Have you tried to soak the Mazri in water? and have you tried to mix it in with greens? I am no expert and completely agree with @wellington, you need a bigger better variety. The methods of trying to get him to eat Mazuri are just a way to help supplement his diet.

 

[AshleeSparling]

It's not too much it's too wrong. You have to get a bigger and better variety of foods. Too much kale is bad and lettuce is mostly water and little nutrition.
Orchard hay, grass, cactus. If you have to do grocery greens, use arugula, endive, escarole, dandelion can be found in stores. Find Mexican grocery stores if possible they usually carry the cactus and different greens

Is Timothy hay ok? I'm in a food desert

 

[wellington]

Is Timothy hay ok? I'm in a food desert

They usually won't eat it, it's very woody. Orchard hay is much softer. Pet stores usually carry it or can be found on chewy.com or Amazon. Not the cheapest way to get it, but at least it's getting the better hay.

 

[Tom]

He's a bottomless pit. He refuses to even try mazuri LS. I put cucumbers in it, he just picks them out and when their to small to pick out he doesn't even eat those. He will eat 3 heads of lettuce and a whole lb bag of kale a day, but I feel that's to much. How much should I feed him?

It takes time to introduce any new food. You have to start very slowly with tiny amounts at first. Get regular Mazuri. 5M21 type. Soak a tiny amount and mix it in with old favorite foods.

Sulcatas are grazers. They should eat as much as they want of the right foods all day every day.

Timothy hay is not recommended. Its too stammy. Orchard grass hay or Bermuda grass hay is better, but it takes time to introduce hay. Two ways that I use are: 1. Chop it, soak it, and mix it in. 2. feed other foods on a bed of it.

Feeding:
So much contradictory info on this subject. Its simple. What do they eat in the wild. Grass, weeds, leaves, flowers, and succulents. Feed them a huge variety of these things, and you'll have a healthy tortoise. All of these species are very adaptable when it comes to diet and there is a very large margin of error, and many ways to do it right. What if you don't have this sort of "natural" tortoise food available for part of each year because you are in the snow? You will have no choice but to buy grocery store food. What's wrong with grocery store food? It tends to lack fiber, some items are low in calcium or have a poor calcium to phosphorous ratio, and some items have deleterious compounds in them. All of these short comings can be improved with some simple supplementation and amendments. A pinch of calcium two times per week will help fix that problem. You can also leave cuttle bone in the enclosure, so your tortoise can self-regulate its own calcium intake. What about fiber? Soaked horse hay pellets, soaked ZooMed Grassland pellets, Mazuri tortoise chow, "Salad style", "Herbal Hay" both from @TylerStewart and his lovely wife Sarah at Tortoisesupply.com, or many of the dried plants and leaves available from Will @Kapidolo Farms. If you must use grocery store foods, favor endive and escarole as your main staples. Add in arugula, cilantro, kale, collard, mustard and turnip greens, squash leaves, spring mix, romaine, green or red leaf lettuce, butter lettuce, water cress, carrot tops, celery tops, bok choy, and whatever other greens you can find. If you mix in some of the aforementioned amendments, these grocery store foods will offer plenty of variety and fiber and be able to meet your tortoises nutritional needs just fine. I find it preferable to grab a few grapevine or mulberry leaves, or a handful of mallow and clover, or some broadleaf plantain leaves and some grass, but with the right additions, grocery store stuff is fine too. Grow your own stuff, or find it around you when possible. Tyler and Sarah also sell a fantastic Testudo seed mix that is great for ALL tortoise species and also super easy to grow in pots, trays, raised garden beds, or in outdoor tortoise enclosures. When that isn't possible, add a wide variety of good stuff to your grocery store greens to make them better.