Both Michael and Scott have made good points. My two cents: Temps and humidity. There is STILL a great deal of debate about both. My opinion (note: I'm NOT an expert and these are only the conclusions I've made over the past 13 years keeping and raising torts). Nothing can be a perfect substitute for natural, unfiltered sunlight and the great outdoors. Torts that I've raised outside generally look 100% WC. Indoors? I've had mixed results. Some of my CBB Pancakes are 'WC smooth' while others have light to significant pyramiding AND they were raised in the exact same enclosure! Go figure... my thoughts are this...

In captivity food uptake is WAY more than the wild, therefore the digestive tract is working much more than in the wild (possibly a poor assumption on my part since I'm not a chelonid biologist). Where is one key problem? Temperature! I personally believe that some (not all) pyramiding issues are a direct result of 'too cool' a basking site. Now, I'm not advocating that you put them under a french fry warming light, BUT, I have pretty high basking temps with my indoor torts and of course ambient hide box temps to keep cool. I believe that HOT basking sites are necessary to metabolize the large quantities of food a lot of keepers feed (myself included). How hot? Not exactly sure, sorry... I need to get a temp gun sometime soon, but the last time I put a digital thermometer under some basking areas at the approximate height of the tortoise shell I'd say 115 to 120 was pretty 'normal'. Now, this too can lead to it's own set of problems (burns, etc) and things must be CAREFULLY controlled. So, I'm not advocating you do this, but it's something to ponder. Also, humidity: I DO believe in high humidity micro-climate hide boxes for all tortoises (yes, arid too). To me it makes complete sense based on observations I've made of their behavoir (not in the wild). ALL the tortoise species I keep which do not dig a burrow, will generally do their best to press their shell into the substrate up and over the front of their carapace. In my opinion that is proof that a micro climate is necessary. I could be completely wrong, but I believe the high humid micro climate is the direct result of them hiding and essential to 'good' growth and health. Okay, enough rambling... maybe this will give more ideas?!

Matt

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