African Spurred Tortoise

Geochelone sulcata

A large portion of your African Spurred Tortoises food should be grasses, weeds, etc as this is usually high in fiber. Ensure that any greens fed to your tortoise do not contain any sort of pesticide.

African Spurred Tortoises should not be fed anything like cauliflower, cabbage, beans or tomatoes. These vegetables are too high in protein to be safely fed to this type of tortoise.

If you are unable to provide unfiltered sunlight through time outside for your tortoise it will be necessary to use a UVB bulb throughout your tortoises development. The UVB light is required for your tortoise to produce Vitamin D3. Vitamin D3 is important as it is used in shell growth.

A temperature gradient of 75 degrees F to 85 degrees F should be satisfactory for your African Spurred Tortoise. This will provide it with a good range of temperature for it to choose. Some sort of a basking light is welcome in the enclosure.

You will want to provide your African Spurred Tortoise with some sort of a substrate that will allow it to burrow. They do this a lot in the wild and will spend a lot of time doing so in captivity if it is provided with a suitable substrate.

While your tortoise is a juvenile be very careful of what you place in the cage because if something were to fall on it your tortoise may not be able to get out.