Sullie Appetite

[Tom]

I've been really trying to feed my torts a lot more lately to try and get them to leave the new weeds in their pen alone. This is easy as I have hundreds of acres of safe, untouched, unkempt, unsprayed weeds and grass around me. I've been giving them bags full, plus they still have their bermuda grass hay always available. So, they eat the dry stuff, then a mound of mallow, filaree, hawksbeard, mustard and two kinds of grass as big as they are, then, when the weed pile is all gone, and I do mean ALL gone, they immediately go over and and start munching away on the newly sprouting weeds. Each tort eats a pile of weeds bigger than they are, in addition to the dry grass hay and then the sprouting weeds! Temps here have only been in the 50's and it doesn't even slow them down.

Its just amazing what they can put away. In the past I've tried to see how much it would take to fill them up, but I always stopped short after some obscene amount of food, because I'm afraid they're going to hurt themselves. I used to do this with my saltwater pufferfish too. They never quit either. Seriously. I know small horses and cows who don't eat this much. My donkey doesn't eat this much!!!

Anybody who's got a young sullie or wants one, go back and look at that pic of Maggies' fridge and really consider what you are getting into.

 

[Yvonne G]

I don't feed my sulcata at all. He was put onto an established pasture when he was 35lbs and has lived there for the past appx. 11 years. In the winter, the bermuda grass goes dormant and is brown. A few different kinds of winter weeds will grow, but right now his pasture looks like this:

I know it LOOKS green, but up close:

Its just the winter grass and brown bermuda.

I occasionally toss him a branch off the mulberry tree or the prunings from my grape vine.

He normally grazes for an hour or two each day. I have three desert tortoises living on the same-sized space as Dudley, the sulcata, and I have to occasionally mow their pasture. I have NEVER mowed Dudley's pasture!

 

[evabug1]

Yeah, I showed my hubby Maggie's pics of her fridge and his eyes got big.

That's interesting Yvonne. How big is your enclosure? How do you know when you have enough forage that it's safe to stop feeding him except for the occasional goodies?

 

[Yvonne G]

The whole thing is about 3000 square feet, but its divided into three parts. Right now he's in the square just in front of the camera. If you'll notice the fence you can see a black cement stake on the outside of the fence. I can lift out those sections of fence and open it up to the "U" shaped pen outside the square, and the third part is in the upper right section of the picture. That gate is open right now. If there isn't enough forage, he doesn't eat. That's the way it is in the wild too. And that's why its divided into sections...so part is growing while he's eating the other part down to the dirt.

 

[evabug1]

That's smart. I'll have to keep that in mind when I build an outdoor enclosure. Thanks for the info!