No, I don't mind and I had intended to come back

and address that.



The one with the slight pyramiding is Spotty, my

very first hatchling in my very first clutch.



Spotty was, from the very beginning, a pig and

unfortunately I indulged his appetite and fed him

too much protein. I think it had more to do with

my indulging his voracious appetite because he has

other clutchmates that have less or no pyramiding.



The other turtle in front of Spotty in the bowl, in

the fourth photo down is one of Spotty's siblings

from the same year and he/she has less pyramiding,

and I can think of at least one that has a

beautifully shaped shell with no pyramiding.



Spotty and his siblings (four in the first clutch,

two in the second)hatched in 2001. Two of the

siblings ended up with metabolic bone syndrome.

They have recovered and their shell shape is improving

as they grow, but they will probably always look odd.

I will try to post a photo of them.



My hypothesis on why two babies out of seven had MBD

is that they were smaller and less agressive.

I was dusting the crickets I fed them with rep-cal/herptivite

but not the mealworms. So I think the two weren't getting as many of the crickets, the ones they got were probably being

stolen out of their mouths from more agressive siblings.



Since the first year, I haven't had any scute pyramidding and

I haven't had any MBD. Its been my experience that Rep-cal calcium with D3 does a pretty good job of preventing MBD.



I also start offering the babies romaine lettuce and small bits of tomato when they have shown some growth and are a few months old. Some take awhile, but I eat bagged salads almost everynight so I leave some to distribute among babies and bugs.



I now dust all bugs and make sure I gutload crickets and superworms with goldfish flakes, greens and/or romaine lettuce.



I don't think I've every had one as glutinous(sp?)as Spotty

but if I had it to do over again, I would limit the amount of bugs I gave him and started offering greens, fruits and vegetables earlier. Probabably the reason I gave him too much was to keep him away from the other babies that were trying to eat. He ate faster so I would offer him more bugs to keep him from stealing food from the others. Should have just pulled him out and put him into a shoebox with some salad.



If you have a baby/juvi that seems to have an insatiable appetite, just don't give in to him, and after feeding him a few bugs, offer him some veggies or fruit to fill up on.



By the way, if anyone is wondering when you can start sexing,

Spotty starting "fanning" during the summer of 2005, but he is

still the only one in the group that I know the gender of.

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