Ok, I'm confused about this article: Wet or Dry food?

[Via Infinito]

http://ojaisulcataproject.org/diet.html

Most people, when I question them about dark leafy greens, think that means some kind of store-bought lettuces or salad greens. The reason I do not use dark leafy salad-type greens, fruits and vegetables is this: greens, fruit and vegetables do have nutrition, but they have too much water. The tortoise's fecal material passes through its gut too fast and is too wet and soft when excreted.

There are no good reasons, in my opinion, to feed grocery-store fruit or vegetables, not even as a treat. Only humans think a "treat" is a necessity of life. For a treat, try other grasses, weeds, flowers, leaves, but keep it natural, not store-bought.
For the animal to maximize the nutrient value of the food it ingests, food should stay in the gut 48 to 72 hours, and perhaps longer, depending on the climate. If its food passes through its system more rapidly, the animal's hunger is not satisfied, and it will want to eat more and more.

Long-fiber grasses, both green and dry, will stay in the gut to ferment much longer than grocery-store greens, vegetables and fruit. More nutrition is absorbed through the fermenting process. I recommend Bermuda grass, Bermuda hay, alfalfa hay (alfalfa does not have too much protein), and St. Augustine grass. I have not had good luck with feeding either Timothy hay or Orchard hay."


Is that completely valid? Because I always mist and wet the veggies before I feed mine
also I wet the mazuri in order for my Sulcata to eat.

Is he saying that the veggies should be rather dry when fed to them?
and I do use quite a few veggies from the stores in the mixed like kale, mustard greens, bok choy and watercress (mine is obsessed with watercress).
Mine is only over a year old and is around 460 g.

 

[JoesMum]

Weedy and leafy greens is the natural diet of these tortoises. The weeds picked from the wild tend be higher in fibre and nutrients than store bought greens. There is no substitute for learning the plants that grow in your locality and picking them for feed. However, there are few of us who manage completely without store bought greens. We just have to be choosy.

Sulcatas cannot digest sugars properly - they cause digestive and kidney problems - so sweet foods, including fruit, tomato, bell pepper and carrot, should only be fed very sparingly and very occasionally... if at all.

Your tortoise must remain hydrated. Wetting food helps to increase the amount of water your tortoise drinks... it also helps food to stick together so picky eaters (and tortoises are the pickiest eaters going) cannot just eat their favourite things and leave the rest.

The grass and hay add extra fibre. Few sulcatas will eat it willingly when very young. Introduce it very gradually. Take a very small amount of fresh grass and snip it into tiny pieces with scissors and sprinkle it on the other greens. If the other greens are wet, your tort has no choice but to eat the grass.

If your tort refuses to eat, leave the mix in place for 24 hours and then replace with a fresh mix with the same tiny amount of grass sprinkled on it. A hungry tortoise will stop being stubborn and eat eventually, but you have to be strong because torts are good at mentally bullying their owners!

If the mix is eaten, at the next feed add a tiny amount more finely cut grass to the next feed. Over time... and I mean weeks if not months... your tort will come to regard grass as a normal part of its diet. You can then start again with hay added to the grass weed mix in exactly the same way.

The sooner you can get grass and hay in the diet the better. Your tort will grow very rapidly into a 50kg+ bulldozer that must live outside and will need to graze constantly. Introducing grass and hay to the diet is vital

There is a lot of rubbish on the internet about Sulcatas being desert creatures that don't need much/any water. They do. Serving food wet is a good way of keeping them hydrated.

Have you read Tom's words of wisdom on diet for young Sulcatas?
https://tortoiseforum.org/threads/for-those-who-have-a-young-sulcata.76744/

 

[Via Infinito]

Weedy and leafy greens is the natural diet of these tortoises. The weeds picked from the wild tend be higher in fibre and nutrients than store bought greens. There is no substitute for learning the plants that grow in your locality and picking them for feed. However, there are few of us who manage completely without store bought greens. We just have to be choosy.

Sulcatas cannot digest sugars properly - they cause digestive and kidney problems - so sweet foods, including fruit, tomato, bell pepper and carrot, should only be fed very sparingly and very occasionally... if at all.

Your tortoise must remain hydrated. Wetting food helps to increase the amount of water your tortoise drinks... it also helps food to stick together so picky eaters (and tortoises are the pickiest eaters going) cannot just eat their favourite things and leave the rest.

The grass and hay add extra fibre. Few sulcatas will eat it willingly when very young. Introduce it very gradually. Take a very small amount of fresh grass and snip it into tiny pieces with scissors and sprinkle it on the other greens. If the other greens are wet, your tort has no choice but to eat the grass.

If your tort refuses to eat, leave the mix in place for 24 hours and then replace with a fresh mix with the same tiny amount of grass sprinkled on it. A hungry tortoise will stop being stubborn and eat eventually, but you have to be strong because torts are good at mentally bullying their owners!

If the mix is eaten, at the next feed add a tiny amount more finely cut grass to the next feed. Over time... and I mean weeks if not months... your tort will come to regard grass as a normal part of its diet. You can then start again with hay added to the grass weed mix in exactly the same way.

The sooner you can get grass and hay in the diet the better. Your tort will grow very rapidly into a 50kg+ bulldozer that must live outside and will need to graze constantly. Introducing grass and hay to the diet is vital

There is a lot of rubbish on the internet about Sulcatas being desert creatures that don't need much/any water. They do. Serving food wet is a good way of keeping them hydrated.

Have you read Tom's words of wisdom on diet for young Sulcatas?
https://tortoiseforum.org/threads/for-those-who-have-a-young-sulcata.76744/

He does eat grass from his outside garden during the day. His veggie mix also has grass in them,
I will continue to wet it then

 

[borisbo12]

While it’s important to stick to a healthy diet for your tortoise species, variety is nice. After all, you’d hate eating the same kind of salad every single day, too. A few other things that your pet tortoise may enjoy as part of their meal would be mulberry leaves, aloe, parsley, oregano, artichoke, strawberry leaves, raspberry leaves, and blackberry leaves.

Notice we’re specifying the leaves here. It’s not that torties shouldn’t eat berries, but they really need to stick with greens for most of their diets. You can always offer a berry or two as an occasional treat.

If given in moderation you can feed your tortoise some vegetables in the brassica family, meaning plants like kale, cabbage, broccoli, brussels sprouts and so on.

 

[wellington]

While it’s important to stick to a healthy diet for your tortoise species, variety is nice. After all, you’d hate eating the same kind of salad every single day, too. A few other things that your pet tortoise may enjoy as part of their meal would be mulberry leaves, aloe, parsley, oregano, artichoke, strawberry leaves, raspberry leaves, and blackberry leaves.

Notice we’re specifying the leaves here. It’s not that torties shouldn’t eat berries, but they really need to stick with greens for most of their diets. You can always offer a berry or two as an occasional treat.

If given in moderation you can feed your tortoise some vegetables in the brassica family, meaning plants like kale, cabbage, broccoli, brussels sprouts and so on.

Very few tortoises should be given fruit. Even as an occasional treat for most tortoises it should not be fed.

 

[borisbo12]

Very few tortoises should be given fruit. Even as an occasional treat for most tortoises it should not be fed.

thanks for suggestion.

 

[Tom]

While it’s important to stick to a healthy diet for your tortoise species, variety is nice. After all, you’d hate eating the same kind of salad every single day, too. A few other things that your pet tortoise may enjoy as part of their meal would be mulberry leaves, aloe, parsley, oregano, artichoke, strawberry leaves, raspberry leaves, and blackberry leaves.

Notice we’re specifying the leaves here. It’s not that torties shouldn’t eat berries, but they really need to stick with greens for most of their diets. You can always offer a berry or two as an occasional treat.

If given in moderation you can feed your tortoise some vegetables in the brassica family, meaning plants like kale, cabbage, broccoli, brussels sprouts and so on.

This thread you are responding to is 4 and a half years old...

 

[borisbo12]

This thread you are responding to is 4 and a half years old...

so what?

 

[Yvonne G]

so what?

So the original poster hasn't been back or visited the forum in over two years.