pyramiding

[tstipp]

I have red foot tortoises.they ared house together and eat the same diet. one of them seems to be pyramiding.the only difference in behavior between two is the one that seems to be pyramiding suns herself much much more then the other tortoise who hides all the time in his log. they eat fresh greens occasional fruit, vitamins and protein.

 

[Odin's Gma]

I have a ton of questions!
What is the humidity in the enclosure? How often do you soak? How old are they?

 

[Tom]

This is fairly common. It happens this way most of the time.

Housing them as a pair is not recommended. It adds chronic stress even when things "seem" fine. I suspect, but cannot prove, that stress is also a factor in pyramiding in some way or other.

 

[wellington]

They do need a higher humidity. The one hiding all the time, could be cuz of some bullying or dominance from the other. Could be the other way around too, not letting the one inside the hide/log. It might help to add more plants to help bump up humidity and give more hiding spots and a more filtered sunny. A lot of members have reported that their RF don't bask at all or very little. So a filtered basking spot wouldn't hurt and I would up the humidity, keeping top layer dry.

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

Hello and a very warm welcome to Tortoise forum to you, your two redfoots and your piano.
Here are some useful links http://www.tortoiseforum.org/thread...together-a-lesson-learned-the-hard-way.94114/
and http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/beginner-mistakes.45180/
and http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/the-end-of-pyramiding.15137/

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi, and welcome!

The hiding tortoise is probably getting more humidity than the sunning tortoise. Humidity is what helps them grow smoothly. Try to provide extra humidity for the one sunning all the time.

 

[Gillian M]

A very warm welcome to the forum.

Do you live in that dry a climate? If so, please make sure you provide much more HUMIDITY. Good luck.

 

[Gillian M]

Please post pics of your torts. These will enable the experts to help you more.