Too much cactus?

[drewby07]

Hi there! My little 3-4 month old sulcata LOVES optunia. I feed a variety of grass / weeds / mazuri / grassland tortoise pellets and optunia. Any time I mix in some diced optunia, he/she eats that first. Often times she will focus on JUST the cactus and ignore everything else!

My question is, how much is too much? I'm happy to see her eating, but I don't want to sacrifice her health as a result. I've read that too much can cause runny poops...but haven't seen that at all. SO....worry, or feed her all she wants?

 

[SulcataSquirt]

Id say feed all she wants unless runny poop starts, also you want her to keep on a varied diet so keep that in mind, as long as shes eating her other food along with that to get a complete diet id say you are fine.

 

[Len B]

I have a sulcata about the same age of yours,when I bring it in for the night I will fix it some snack foods, mazuri, opuntia, and some different types of greens that are not in the outside enclosure.I do this every day, and it will choose what it wants to eat and it is not always the same thing,one night it will eat the mazuri first and the next night it wont touch the mazuri at all and go after the cactus, I don't mix them together so I can see what it is eating, usually everything is gone (except the dried mazuri) before I take it outside the next day, So I would say offer her all the opuntia you want and let her eat what she wants and not to worry about her getting to much, unless she goes for days and eats only the cactus and ignores everything else.

 

[drewby07]

Thanks all...I just reread the food list on a thread here, and optunia was near the top of the "80%" list...so I guess it's better than her preferring something less nutritious. She also likes mazuri and grass / weeds, so I'll just keep on doing what I'm doing!

 

[TortieLuver]

I wouldn't worry about it the cactus is good for them and what you are feeding all sounds excellent