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Re: Sulcatta shell


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Posted by Terry on June 18, 2001 at 19:31:05:

In Reply to: Sulcatta shell posted by steve on June 17, 2001 at 22:56:33:


Hi Steve.
You said that they are out in the sun all day.
Are they in a large outdoor enclosure, or free in the yard?

If they're in an enclosure is it planted with grass, so that they can graze?

I ask because I too have two sulcatas that had pyramiding when I got them.
They had been housed indoors, but I house them outdoors.They have the entire back yard to roam about in.

I've had one of them for around 3 years the other for two years and both are smoothing out nicely.

The trick for me was to house them outdoors and allow them to graze.
Get them on the most natural diet you can.
Mine graze on the grass and weeds and get hibiscus flowers daily.

I have at least 10 hibiscus bushes, grown out of the tortoises area (or the sulcatas would destroy them).
We pick all the flowers every morning and just throw them in the back yard. The sulcatas gobble them up.
My sulcatas also get mulberry leaves a couple of times a week, opuntia cactus every 10 day to two weeks.
And romaine lettuce and endive about twice a week.

They have plenty of room to roam about and plenty of grass/clover/weeds to graze on.

Being outdoors with plenty of room and on a fairly natural diet seems to have played a big part in getting their shells to smooth out.

Your torts are young (one of mine was 13" when I got her but is now over 16" and almost completely smooth)so with the right diet, sunlight and room to roam I'm sure they should start to smooth out.

I think overfeeding, feeding the wrong foods and lack of excercise all contribute to pyramiding.I also think that natural sunlight works wonders.

Hope this helps.
Terry.


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