At least 75 of their diet should be given as grasses and hays along with some edible weeds and flowers.
Baby sulcata tortoise diet sheet.
Small amounts of other leafy green vegetables are okay but avoid foods high in oxalates.
Sulcata tortoises require a great deal of calcium in their diet to help them grow healthy bones and shells.
Some of the care sheets and also some of the books written on the care of baby sulcatas are based on the mistaken and deadly premise that the sulcata is a desert dwelling animal.
Growing rapidly a 2 inch baby sulcata tortoise hatchling can reach sizes of over 10 in a 18 months and 18 in 24 months.
Caring for a baby sulcata tortoise 2 4 16 page 2 but not so many of them give comprehensive info on the caring for baby tortoises.
African spurred tortoises are herbivorous grazing tortoises and need a high fiber low protein diet.
The sahel area of africa where sulcata naturally occur is a semi arid region that has calcium rich soils.
Sulcata tortoises reach sexual maturity at about 6 years old and stop growing at around age 15.
A healthy diet should include about 80 grass weeds and hay.
Wild sulcata tortoises therefore get sufficient calcium by eating the grasses that grow in these calcium laden soils.
Sulcatas are a grazing species.