Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Peabody is 1 1/2 years old now and weighs 300 grams. His
carapace is about 4.5". When I purchased him he was 50 grams
at a few months old.

My question is he gets about 2 tablespoons each day of food.
He always gets at least 2 dark greens, some type of vegetable,
squash, and a little fruit. On Sundays he gets a few Reptomin
Turtle sticks for his animal protein. I always mix things
up daily so there is a good variety. On occasion I will just
give tomatoe or something but not often. Peabody always acts
like he is starving. He patrols his enclosure searching,
searching, searching for more food. I have 3 pothos that I
rotate but he has eaten all of them down to nothing. While
servicing his enclosure he follows me like a puppy dog. Am
I giving him enough to eat?? I hate the thought of him being
hungry but I am trying to keep him for growing too fast and
pyramiding. I am wondering if he is already too large for his
age.

Your thoughts?

Thanks, Linda

Rate of growth has nothing to do with pyramiding. I can honestly say that with confidence. Pyramiding is mainly due to environmental conditions and diet, in that order of importance.
If you have a balanced diet and the environmental conditions are just right you are going to get the growth you expect.
I alway recommend feeding as much as they will eat in one sitting and then removing the food. A feeding period of every other day seems to work pretty well and skipping a day or 2 does not seem to hurt. Too many people focus on rate and there has yet to be any evidence provided that too slow or too fast is detrimental to the health of the animal in the case of animals that are kept under good environmental conditions and are fed what appears to be a balanced diet.
Ed

Aren't they just fabulous tortoises? Seems to me that your little tort is progressing nicely and 300g is just about where I would expect my little guy to be in another year. Please post a pic of him because we just love looking at our and others tortoises.

I wouldn't worry too much about rate of growth and pyramiding either. I think a lumpy unnatural carapace is the result of a number of factors---not just one.
However, I can't help but think that 'pushing' a tortoise is not good for it. True, it might not be harmful, but then again it could be. Plus, there are degrees of what we are calling fast growth. I have seen spectacular growth in redfoots that were fed dog food, mice and other things not considered to be 'good' food items these days. But, what is the long term effect of such a diet??? If its my tortoise, I'm providing high quality foods but I'm not constantly trying to entice it to eat more and more in an effort to get quick size on it.

This is the approach I try to follow. Follow a regimen of a relatively good diet coupled with a relatively good environement and then don't even think about rate.
Ed