Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a juvinille, 3 and 1/2 inch(about 4 months I was told) RF tort and his shell seems like he may be starting (very slightly to pyramid. I was told until he is a year old to feed him daily but he eats A LOT. I read up on pyramiding and it says RFs can develop it from eating too much but how much is too much? Should I feed him less often? He loves his food

Thanks in advance for any help!

I have been feeding my redfoots every other day ever since I got them at 2 weeks old. This is what the breeder recommended and I seem to get very nice results in terms of growth.
Of course the amount fed is only one part of the story,- feeding a good diet low in animal protein is the other.
Up until recently I have fed as much as they liked with every feeding, but now that they are two and a half years old, they really can eat a lot within a very short time. So I have started to limit their intake somewhat,- mainly in terms of cutting down on the fruit portions and increasing the greens though.

Gaby

This is a very common topic, so be sure to check the archives. Do provide a humidity chamber, a box or pipe with a damp sponge on the ceiling will suffice. They seem to hang out a lot in damp burrows/scrapes as wild young tortoises, and many keepers agree there is a correlation between high humidity option and no/minimal pyramiding. I have found it to be true with Euro/Asian tortoises.

Good idea! I never thought of using a sponge! How do you secure it to the top of a hide though? What exactly do you use? I want to try it!

Thanks!

EJ suggested this to me. Take a terra cotta flower pot and split it. Use one of those hot glue guns and glue a sponge to the ceiling of the split pot. Try to select a sponge color that they won't want to eat, avoid yellow for example. Or, you can just take a piece of ABS pipe and put a cap on the end. Shove a damp sponge inside. Do change and wash it frequently, you don't want to create a haven for mold. I am finding humidity a great option for tortoises and many snakes as well. Give the animals options, let them choose and you will learn a lot about what they WANT rather than what we as keepers choose. Be sure to read Richard Fife's article (see post by Ivory tortoise) No pyramiding for your baby!

reptiles magazine put out an article on pyramiding a few months back and they said that low humidity in a high humidity requirment enclosure is a big reason for pyramiding. i used to live in vermont with my redfoot and she was developing pyramids, but she also lived in a kiddie pool with an open top, i recently moved to south west colorago where it is even drier and i have put her in a sterilite container to preseve the moisture in the air and i didnt change her diet with 80% greens 20% fruits/flowers. i also do suppliment with either a monkey busciut, highquality organic dog food, or a pinky mouse about every other week

adam

Go to the May 2005 article in Reptiles Magazine for my take on pyramiding. I wrote the article.

I just found the article and it was very helpfull. Thank you all so much! I live in NY so I think that the humidity was the problem. I had a bunch of left over moss which I ised to make a humid hide with in a tupperware container. Petri hasn't gone into it on his own yet but we'll give it a try! Thanks to everyone who helped and for the GREAT article!

~Laura