Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I recently purchased a approx 20lb Sulcata.He is active and eatting but has pretty bad pyramiding and a less than solid underside.Wanted to know if with proper care the pyramiding will eventaully decrease or is it permanent?Also any helpful ideas on treatment would be greatly appreciated.
thanks

From my understanding pyramiding will never go away but hopefully over time and with proper care it will grow into the pyramiding which should be less obvious...I guess it all depends on how bad the pyramiding is. My 4 year old has some slight shell bumps (pyramiding) and over the past 2 years he's grown quite a bit and the bumps are less obvious than they were before...and I think that had a lot to do with natural diet, sunlight, and just allowing him to be a tort. I have a 2 year old who's shell is perfect with absolutely no pyramiding and I give the guy a high five for the way he raised her. Can you post pics?
I would allow free access to grass...sunlight, shade, water...i treat mine with flowers, hibiscus, mulberry leaves and catctus pads occasionally. I also keep a combo of timothy/bermuda hay down for grazing when grass isn't always plentiful.

>>From my understanding pyramiding will never go away but hopefully over time and with proper care it will grow into the pyramiding which should be less obvious...I guess it all depends on how bad the pyramiding is.

In my experience this is true.
Our tort was 9.1 lbs when we took her in July of 2002. She was horribly pyramided, now 5 years later she still is but as she has grown the appeance of the pyramids has lessened.
She'll never be "normal" but proper care, free range grazing has helped a lot.
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PHRatz