Re: pyramiding/protein

[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] [ The Tortoise Forum ] [ FAQ ]

Posted by Eric T. on June 29, 2000 at 15:49:31:

In Reply to: pyramiding/protein posted by EJ on June 29, 2000 at 11:47:19:

: I don't have as many tortoises some of the people on the forum (currently I'm down to two.) these two tortoises are a fairly large Russian named Skippy, and a 10 month old Sulcata named Dexter. Dexter is young enough that it is difficult to trend in his growth. He mostly eats store greens and in the summer he gets supervised outdoor grazing time. Recently I've been a little worried about his calcium in-take; it looks like he may be starting to pyramid- but again its too early to tell.
Skippy eats store-bought greens, some fruit as a treat and sometimes a prepackaged *Zoo-med* Iguana and Land Turtle food. Recently I have been adding chopped timothy hay to the food dish. Skippy's shell is beautifully smooth! Last summer we noticed that Skippy was getting a bit obese, there were rolls of fat squeezing out by his legs (front and back). So I put him on a diet, cutting back on the ammount of food (no more Zoo-med) and giving him periodic fast-days. Then one day we were horrified to see what looked like shell damage. It appeared that the top scutes were pulling away from the body right at the line that seperates the top scutes and the marginal scutes.
We watched for a couple of days and soon came to the realization that this was rapid shell growth. Eventually there was a white line of new shell bordering each scute (a new shell ring, and the thickest shell ring to date). Still, the shell has not pyramidded and looks close to flawless.
I assumed that the pre-packaged tortoise food had a high level of protein but I was always carefull to supplament it with calcium powder and high calcium greens like dandelion.
Oh- I should add that I am breaking a cardinal rule of tortoise keeping by housing Skippy and Dexter together. This also means that I feed them the same foods. It will be interesting to see if Dexter starts pyramidding or not (hopefully *not*)
-Eric-

Follow Ups:

Post a Followup

Name:
E-Mail:

Subject:

Comments:
: : I don't have as many tortoises some of the people on the forum (currently I'm down to two.) these two tortoises are a fairly large Russian named Skippy, and a 10 month old Sulcata named Dexter. Dexter is young enough that it is difficult to trend in his growth. He mostly eats store greens and in the summer he gets supervised outdoor grazing time. Recently I've been a little worried about his calcium in-take; it looks like he may be starting to pyramid- but again its too early to tell. : Skippy eats store-bought greens, some fruit as a treat and sometimes a prepackaged *Zoo-med* Iguana and Land Turtle food. Recently I have been adding chopped timothy hay to the food dish. Skippy's shell is beautifully smooth! Last summer we noticed that Skippy was getting a bit obese, there were rolls of fat squeezing out by his legs (front and back). So I put him on a diet, cutting back on the ammount of food (no more Zoo-med) and giving him periodic fast-days. Then one day we were horrified to see what looked like shell damage. It appeared that the top scutes were pulling away from the body right at the line that seperates the top scutes and the marginal scutes. : We watched for a couple of days and soon came to the realization that this was rapid shell growth. Eventually there was a white line of new shell bordering each scute (a new shell ring, and the thickest shell ring to date). Still, the shell has not pyramidded and looks close to flawless. : I assumed that the pre-packaged tortoise food had a high level of protein but I was always carefull to supplament it with calcium powder and high calcium greens like dandelion. : Oh- I should add that I am breaking a cardinal rule of tortoise keeping by housing Skippy and Dexter together. This also means that I feed them the same foods. It will be interesting to see if Dexter starts pyramidding or not (hopefully *not*) : -Eric-

Optional Link URL:
Link Title:
Optional Image URL:

[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] [ The Tortoise Forum ] [ FAQ ]