Re: How would that explain identically raised tortoises pyramiding so diff? np

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Posted by Richard Fife on May 24, 2000 at 13:32:09:

In Reply to: Re: How would that explain identically raised tortoises pyramiding so diff? np posted by bsw on May 24, 2000 at 11:15:18:

Unfortunately my work is very preliminary. I have only used 6 species of tortoises including red-foot, yellow-foot, hermann�s tortoises, marginated tortoises, leopard tortoises, and African spurred tortoises. Quantities very from one or two animals in each group to over one hundred. Most of my test subjects are eventually sold. Recently diet has been controlled by using only pelleted foods of know protein levels. Time of the experiments vary from several months to over a year.

Twenty years ago I was aware that many of the tortoises I sold died. My first objective was to help the average hobbyist to keep them alive by finding a simple diet that produced consistent results. My next concern was the pyramiding I saw in captive animals. I have been working on that for over ten years and I still have animals from my original experiments. I spent quite a few years experimenting with different diets until I decided that there must be more to the equation. I have tried several different methods trying to eliminate other possible causes of pyramiding. I am a tortoise breeder not a scientist and I don�t have the time, money, or facility to do detailed or lengthy research. Just a little bit here and a little bit there.

There are a number of things that can play a major part in the final outcome in answering all the questions. I am confident that my preliminary results warrant continued research. The question as to what is considered pyramiding can be very subjective. Some of my results have shown tortoises with no observable difference between adjoining scutes (even with protein levels of 20%). As my brother noted in his post some of the tortoise species that we consider as desert species actually require greater humidity levels than we may expect (especially as babies).

I don�t have all the answers but I am open to any and all input. Again my work is not to prove that diet is not important. Diet is very important to the health and development of a tortoise

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: Unfortunately my work is very preliminary. I have only used 6 species of tortoises including red-foot, yellow-foot, hermann�s tortoises, marginated tortoises, leopard tortoises, and African spurred tortoises. Quantities very from one or two animals in each group to over one hundred. Most of my test subjects are eventually sold. Recently diet has been controlled by using only pelleted foods of know protein levels. Time of the experiments vary from several months to over a year. : Twenty years ago I was aware that many of the tortoises I sold died. My first objective was to help the average hobbyist to keep them alive by finding a simple diet that produced consistent results. My next concern was the pyramiding I saw in captive animals. I have been working on that for over ten years and I still have animals from my original experiments. I spent quite a few years experimenting with different diets until I decided that there must be more to the equation. I have tried several different methods trying to eliminate other possible causes of pyramiding. I am a tortoise breeder not a scientist and I don�t have the time, money, or facility to do detailed or lengthy research. Just a little bit here and a little bit there. : There are a number of things that can play a major part in the final outcome in answering all the questions. I am confident that my preliminary results warrant continued research. The question as to what is considered pyramiding can be very subjective. Some of my results have shown tortoises with no observable difference between adjoining scutes (even with protein levels of 20%). As my brother noted in his post some of the tortoise species that we consider as desert species actually require greater humidity levels than we may expect (especially as babies). : I don�t have all the answers but I am open to any and all input. Again my work is not to prove that diet is not important. Diet is very important to the health and development of a tortoise

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