Talk:African spurred tortoise/Archive 1

Cleanup
There's something wrong with this, the second sentence of the opening paragraph:

"Their diet provides them with water, but they don't drink it, they get all of the water they need from their food."

Doesn't the word diet explicitly imply consumption? Should the word diet be replaced with the word environment or habitat? I think that might be a stretch too but that sentence is definitely awkward.

There's alot wrong with this piece. I'm placing the captivity section here for cleanup, once its rewritten and sourced, we can put it back.--Mike - Μολὼν λαβέ 17:24, 27 September 2008 (UTC)

This section needs to be cleaned up
Due to the availability of these animals in the pet trade, and due to their reputation for having a pleasant temperament, more and more sulcata tortoises are brought home as pets. However, these animals provide significant challenges to their keepers, due to their dietary and temperature requirements, and their size. They are very powerful and very persistent if they think you have something tasty in your house or on the other side of the fence.

They require high fiber diets (grass) as many "wet" vegetables can cause health problems in large quantities. Red leaf lettuce, prickly pear cactus pads, hibiscus leaves, hay from various grasses and dandelions are some of the better foods to make up the bulk of their diet. They will attempt to eat most types of plants eventually and some common garden plants can be very toxic to them, such as azaleas. They will eat such things as caterpillars and snails if given the opportunity, but this also should be a very small portion of their diet. Sulcatas need a large enclosure as they get bigger and should be given a generous grazing area. Sulcatas should be kept above 60F(16°C), which means most areas will require special winter accommodations.

Unfortunately many people do not research them properly and purchase them without an understanding of the responsibility they are taking on. This is compounded by the relatively low price for a large exotic tortoise.

Per CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora), a zero annual export quota has been established for Geochelone sulcata for specimens removed from the wild and traded for primarily commercial purposes.

A captive diet for G. sulcata should be organized around five important factors: high dietary fiber, low protein, low fruit or sugary foods, adequate calcium, and not overfeeding.

The sulcatas' native habitats are semi-arid, and the plants available to this terrestrial herbivore are primarily dry grasses and weeds. Grasses should make up at least 75% of a captive sulcata's diet, to provide the high dietary fiber found in the wild.

Protein is lacking in their natural diet, and should be not be fed in captivity. Lack of calcium and high protein do contribute to some of the shell malformations and causes pyramiding. Fruit should only be given in moderation.

Young sulcatas grow very fast - they can easily double in size each year during the first three years. For proper bone and shell development, their diet must include adequate calcium. In the wild, this is provided by a high calcium content in the soil, and therefore in their diet, but in captivity calcium supplementation is required.

Last, the diet that is available to captive sulcatas can be much more nutritious than in the wild, which offers its own challenges. Sulcatas are naturally voracious, to offset the dearth of nutrients in their habitat; care must be taken to insure the tortoise does not overfeed. Bedding, or other plant material in their enclosures, should be restricted to grasses or grass-based hay, to ensure that the animal does not take in too much nutrition.

In much of the United States, their temperature requirements are of greater concern to their keepers. Given their large size, sulcatas are most easily kept out of doors, but should not overnight outside when the temperatures drop below 60 degrees Fahrenheit (16°C). As this describes most of the US, especially during winter, prospective sulcata keepers may find housing them to be impossible after their first few years of age.

New photos
I added some new photos of these guys, below. I realise there are plenty of photos already, but feel free to use if useful! Dcoetzee 08:38, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for speedy deletion
The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for speedy deletion: You can see the reason for deletion at the file description page linked above. —Community Tech bot (talk) 01:37, 17 January 2023 (UTC)
 * Geographic Range of the African Spurred Tortoise (C. sulcata).png