need a little advice (is my tortoise stunted?)

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Bill rye my tortoise guy

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This is my leopard tort Bill
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As you can see he is not too big. This worries me because I had gotten him when I was in 7th or 8th grade, and had him all the way until about my sophmore year of high school where he was givin to my cousin for a little over 2 years (I felt bad for not being able to take care of him, so my parents gave him to my younger cousin?). Well now he has been back with me for a few months and I have taken responsibility over him again, this time it will be different. Anyways as I was saying he looks a little small at his age(at least 6 years old) is this because he was not fed enough? And what can I do in order to insure he grows at a healthy rate from here on out?

Also he has some pyramiding as you can see
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And I read somewhere on here that keeping them in a moist enviroment(like totally misty) for some time helps their shell grow smoother. So my question is, even though he is already six years old will this help him with his new shell growth if I decide to incorporate this feature into his enclosure?
 
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Yvonne G

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RE: need a little advice

Hi Jaime:

I think your tortoise will be ok if you get him started on the right track. There is a care sheet for leopard tortoises at the top of the leopard section:

http://www.tortoiseforum.org/thread-31227.html

Your tortoise isn't a baby any longer, however, because he is the size of a baby, I would follow the instructions for keeping a baby leopard tortoise.

Just a suggestion on the food...he's too small to eat hay, you're just wasting your time with that. Tortoises usually won't even try to eat hay until they are quite a bit bigger than yours.

It will be interesting to see if he is stunted for life or if the good care he gets from her on causes him to grow to his full potential.


And its very important that he gets the calcium plus the UVB from either the sun or a good UVB light.
 

jtrux

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RE: need a little advice

Tell us more about the enclosure and so forth.
 

Bill rye my tortoise guy

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RE: need a little advice

emysemys said:
Hi Jaime:

I think your tortoise will be ok if you get him started on the right track. There is a care sheet for leopard tortoises at the top of the leopard section:

http://www.tortoiseforum.org/thread-31227.html

Your tortoise isn't a baby any longer, however, because he is the size of a baby, I would follow the instructions for keeping a baby leopard tortoise.

Just a suggestion on the food...he's too small to eat hay, you're just wasting your time with that. Tortoises usually won't even try to eat hay until they are quite a bit bigger than yours.

It will be interesting to see if he is stunted for life or if the good care he gets from her on causes him to grow to his full potential.


And its very important that he gets the calcium plus the UVB from either the sun or a good UVB light.



thanks for the input
The hay was recommended as a top soil for better traction I think and just in case he ate it it would be safe. I usually feed him grass and some weeds from our yard.

I have a cuddle fish bone,but he does not eat it, so i sprinkle some sticky tongue farms indoor miner-all(also recommended) on his food every now and then. And I have a repti glo 10.0 uvb light next to his basking spot so he could get some sort of "sunlight"

I sure hope he grows
 

Bill rye my tortoise guy

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RE: need a little advice

jtrux said:
Tell us more about the enclosure and so forth.

it is a 2x6 foot table my dad made
he has a basking spot where he spends most of his day
two water bowls on either side of his enclosure
his substrate is zoomed premium repti-bark with timothy hay on top
on the other side of his basking spot is a cardboard box :p to block out the light so he can sleep along with a blacklight for heat
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inside the cardboard box
 
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mainey34

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RE: need a little advice

Im sorry, i just left it at that on the other thread. I thought your tort was much younger...lots of greens and humidity, and soaks wont hurt...
 

Baoh

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RE: need a little advice

These are interesting cases.
 

Tortus

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RE: need a little advice

Judging by the size of the scutes, it appears to be the size of a leopard under 6 month old. A couple don't have any new growth between them. That's pretty amazing if it's actually 6 years old.

You'll have a hard time keeping your current enclosure humid. And if you do you won't be able to keep all that hay in there. I keep hay in a corner of mine where it sleeps, but I have to change it every other day or it gets this white spiderweb looking stuff on it (mold I assume).
 

mainey34

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RE: need a little advice

This will not help. Is this how the tort was raised? There is no way to keep humidity in this enclosure..its too dry..
 

Neal

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RE: need a little advice

Maybe it's the lighting in the picture, but it looks like there has been some new shell growth. Has the tortoise been growing since you've had him back these few months?

I would suggest giving the humidity method a try, if you can. And make sure to keep him well hydrated.

Are you able to give him outside time at all?


I have a male tortoise that is about ten years old, and only 6 inches. He hasn't grown since I have had him...a few years now. He eats a lot and is very active, but just doesn't grow. Before I got him, he was fed only kale and kept in rough conditions. I think there is a chance yours may be stunted, unless what I am seeing is in fact new growth. Still, he can leave a normalish healthy life.
 

Bill rye my tortoise guy

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RE: need a little advice

Neal said:
Maybe it's the lighting in the picture, but it looks like there has been some new shell growth. Has the tortoise been growing since you've had him back these few months?

I would suggest giving the humidity method a try, if you can. And make sure to keep him well hydrated.

Are you able to give him outside time at all?


I have a male tortoise that is about ten years old, and only 6 inches. He hasn't grown since I have had him...a few years now. He eats a lot and is very active, but just doesn't grow. Before I got him, he was fed only kale and kept in rough conditions. I think there is a chance yours may be stunted, unless what I am seeing is in fact new growth. Still, he can leave a normalish healthy life.



I have not been keeping track, but to me it looks like he grew a little(very little) since he has been here. I suppose I could track his growth, but I do not know how to track his weight since our scale cannot really detect any difference when he is on there(it is a regular scale, I am not sure if there is a specific scale for them).

right now it is pretty cold for him to be outside, but when we first got him back he was outside everyday for about 30 minutes to an hour. he just grazed on grass the whole time.

besides the pyramiding he seems pretty healthy he has a good appetite, nothing wrong with his eyes, walks fine, etc.

I was thinking if i could get a lid for the enclosure I could somehow keep some moisture in there during the night and most of the day. Maybe even have an area specifically for moisture.
 

Yvonne G

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Take a sheet of plain, white paper. Place the tortoise on the paper and trace his outline with a pencil. In a month or so, do the same thing again on the same piece of paper. Always put the date next to your tracing.
 

Neal

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emysemys said:
Take a sheet of plain, white paper. Place the tortoise on the paper and trace his outline with a pencil. In a month or so, do the same thing again on the same piece of paper. Always put the date next to your tracing.

Never thought of this. Great idea!
 

Neal

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Both, though I would say in this case changing plastron length would be the main concern.
 

sibi

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RE: need a little advice

I have the same situation with a sulcata. He is 3 years old and he's the size of a one month old weighing only 4 oz when I got him. After proper care, in two months time, he weighs 7 oz and his shell has grown a bit. You're right, it's hard to register his weight, so I use a diet scale for food to weigh him. It can continue to take his weight for up to 2 lbs. Many thrift stores sell them for a dollar or two. I also use the tracing method. I don't know if my baby will ever get to be a regular sized adult, but in about six years we'll all find out.

Bill rye my tortoise guy said:
Neal said:
Maybe it's the lighting in the picture, but it looks like there has been some new shell growth. Has the tortoise been growing since you've had him back these few months?

I would suggest giving the humidity method a try, if you can. And make sure to keep him well hydrated.

Are you able to give him outside time at all?


I have a male tortoise that is about ten years old, and only 6 inches. He hasn't grown since I have had him...a few years now. He eats a lot and is very active, but just doesn't grow. Before I got him, he was fed only kale and kept in rough conditions. I think there is a chance yours may be stunted, unless what I am seeing is in fact new growth. Still, he can leave a normalish healthy life.



I have not been keeping track, but to me it looks like he grew a little(very little) since he has been here. I suppose I could track his growth, but I do not know how to track his weight since our scale cannot really detect any difference when he is on there(it is a regular scale, I am not sure if there is a specific scale for them).

right now it is pretty cold for him to be outside, but when we first got him back he was outside everyday for about 30 minutes to an hour. he just grazed on grass the whole time.

besides the pyramiding he seems pretty healthy he has a good appetite, nothing wrong with his eyes, walks fine, etc.

I was thinking if i could get a lid for the enclosure I could somehow keep some moisture in there during the night and most of the day. Maybe even have an area specifically for moisture.

 

Bill rye my tortoise guy

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emysemys said:
Take a sheet of plain, white paper. Place the tortoise on the paper and trace his outline with a pencil. In a month or so, do the same thing again on the same piece of paper. Always put the date next to your tracing.

that sounds way easier and funner than listing a bunch of numbers

thanks for all of the feedback everybody


mainey34 said:
This will not help. Is this how the tort was raised? There is no way to keep humidity in this enclosure..its too dry..

I am not 100% sure how he was raised, but it probably was not better than this.

I just bought a humidifier today and poked a hole in the carboard box so it can mist directly into the enclosure where he sleeps. All I have to do now is block most of the entrance so it can retain the moisture more. The only problem I might have is having the box get all soggy.
 

Vegasarah

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Yeah, that box will fall apart very fast. Try and use some kind of plastic box if you can. And try and cover as much of the top of your table as you can and maybe even change the substrate to something that will hold moisture.
 

LeopardTortLover

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A handy tip to keep humidity in is to cover the top with cling-film. Simply wrap it over the top and stick it round the sides with sticky tape. I had an open top box and really struggled to keep humidity levels up until I did this. Its really cheap and easy to do. Cling-film is also clear so you'll still be able to see your tort.
 

Bill rye my tortoise guy

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I ran into a problem, sort of a dilemma in regards to my tort's shell. So somewhere on here I posted that I had bought a humidifier and had intended to use it. In fact I did and have done so every night all night until today when I noticed his shell has a thin pink line around the top edges of the very bottom scutes. It forms a ring almost all the way around. Now I looked this up a little and found out that that is a sign that a tortoise's shell is growing too fast. Now he is not only too small, but also growing too fast.

I am stuck on what to do now, because it looks like the top scutes(the ones that need to grow more) were just barely starting to grow. Should I cut back a little? Will the pink line heal?


At least I know he is growing.
 
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