Sulcata tortoises should eat a primary diet of grasses and weeds. During the winter months when fresh grass may not be available, offer hay instead. Sulcata tortoise diet is pretty simple – high fiber and grass-based. But, if you need to supplement with store greens, look for safe grocery store greens for sulcata tortoises. As long as you keep it varied, your tortoise should be ok.
Always bare in mind that at least 80% of a sulcata tortoise diet should be grasses and weeds.
Safe grocery store greens for sulcata can include:
- Arugula
- Bok choy (occasional)
- Chicory
- Collard greens (occasional)
- Endive
- Escarole
- Grape leaf
- Green oak leaf
- Kale
- Mesclun lettuce
- Mustard greens (occasional)
- Oak leaf
- Radicchio
- Red leaf lettuce
- Romaine
- Turnip Greens (occasional)
- Spinach (sparingly)
- Spring Mix lettuces
- Watercress
If you are shopping at your local grocery store, market or a large chain store, you’ll find that feeding a sulcata safe greens regularly can get expensive. Try planting lettuce seeds for sulcatas to save money.
Oxalates in Greens for Sulcata
Limit darker greens, like kale, collard greens mustard greens, turnip greens and spinach. Although, these greens are high in different vitamins and minerals, they are also high in oxalates.
Oxalates help protect plants from bugs, but when consumed in large amounts, oxalates can become overly concentrated in the body, they can crystallize and cause health problems in the kidneys or gallbladder. Oxalates can also interfere with iron and calcium absorption.
You can feed your sulcata tortoise foods that contain oxalates, like spinach and kale, but you want to make sure that you feed them alongside a varied diet.
Many sulcata keepers will pick out the spinach leaves in Spring Mix, but you don’t have to as long as you’re feeding Spring Mix lettuces as a part of a balanced diet with plenty of grass, weeds and natural greens (leaves and plants).
