Sulcata Tortoise Eats Everything!

[HerptileLover58]

Not concerned, just curious. I keep my 2-year-old sulcata inside, and let him roam my room a lot. I’ve noticed that he likes to take a chomp of everything he sees. Paper towels, books, water bottles, you name it. He will ingest any tiny crumb or loose thread in the carpet. My floor is now spotless, as I’ve tried my best to vacuum out so much as a speck of dust in which he might take interest. I swear I feed him enough greens and grass every day, but he acts like he’s starving! I have no frame of reference; does anyone else’s tort act like this?

 

[NorCal tortoise guy]

A sulcata is a grazing animal they are programmed to walk and eat it’s just what they do
For this reason I wouldn’t suggest letting him roam the house. The risk he might find something you missed is too high

 

[Maro2Bear]

Greetings. Free roaming the floor in your room isnt a real good idea. All that non-food junk is nasty.....soon, it will find something toxic, or big enough that it chokes or the item gets lodged in the intestine. == Constipation. Possibly a vet visit , or worse. Pls don’t let your tort roam.

 

[Chip's mom]

I just posted something similar because our Greek tortoise is like this in his outside pen, and I don't understand how he'd survive 5 minutes in the wild. I've taken rocks and wood chips the size of his head out of his mouth. I just don't see how a creature doesn't have more of a survival instinct!

 

[Tom]

Not concerned, just curious. I keep my 2-year-old sulcata inside, and let him roam my room a lot. I’ve noticed that he likes to take a chomp of everything he sees. Paper towels, books, water bottles, you name it. He will ingest any tiny crumb or loose thread in the carpet. My floor is now spotless, as I’ve tried my best to vacuum out so much as a speck of dust in which he might take interest. I swear I feed him enough greens and grass every day, but he acts like he’s starving! I have no frame of reference; does anyone else’s tort act like this?

They should never be loose on the floor. This is a recipe for disaster and it will eventually end badly.

 

[Tom]

I just posted something similar because our Greek tortoise is like this in his outside pen, and I don't understand how he'd survive 5 minutes in the wild. I've taken rocks and wood chips the size of his head out of his mouth. I just don't see how a creature doesn't have more of a survival instinct!

When they do this on the floor indoors, it is often curiosity and hunger. Eating wood chips and rocks outdoors is more often a sign of poor diet that is deficient in fiber, too high in calcium, or in some way unbalanced. I see this most often in tortoises that are fed primarily grocery store foods.

Read this for more explanation:

The Best Way To Raise Any Temperate Species Of Tortoise

I chose the title of this care sheet very carefully. Are there other ways to raise babies and care for adults? Yes. Yes there are, but those ways are not as good. What follows is the BEST way, according to 30 years of research and experimentation with hundreds of babies of many species. What is...

tortoiseforum.org

 

[Chip's mom]

That's good to know Tom, thank you. He doesn't get much grocery store food now that it's summer, mostly plantain, clover, dandelion, violet, mallow, succulents, and some other weeds and flower plants. He doesn't love Mazuri but thinking of adding more for fiber and maybe a little more vitamin sprinkled, we add calcium and vitamin rarely maybe a couple of times a month. I will pay close attention to his diet! He's a little vacuum cleaner, just inhales everything in his path! 😂

 

[TammyJ]

Not concerned, just curious. I keep my 2-year-old sulcata inside, and let him roam my room a lot. I’ve noticed that he likes to take a chomp of everything he sees. Paper towels, books, water bottles, you name it. He will ingest any tiny crumb or loose thread in the carpet. My floor is now spotless, as I’ve tried my best to vacuum out so much as a speck of dust in which he might take interest. I swear I feed him enough greens and grass every day, but he acts like he’s starving! I have no frame of reference; does anyone else’s tort act like this?

He needs his own enclosure and not yours. With the correct conditions for that species. Give him the best husbandry you can, and when he thrives, you can feel good too.