Rehomed a baby tortoise. Early sighs of pyramiding ? Health

[DannyandLiv]

Hello everyone just wanted to say this is a fantastic forum!. Its been a great help over the past 3 days since rescuing a horsefield tortoise .I have always kept reptiles yet never a tort, so it's been abit of a mad panic to be honest. which is why we would like to run everything threw with you guys to get everything perfect for a brighter future for the little guy/girl.

Right! it's enclosure is currently only a big plastic open storage box consisting of hides,water/food bowl using a soil/bark substrate. This shall change in the future but for now looks aren't a issue. Temps are reading 30-35 under basking spot with surrounding temps of 22-30, I woke up this morning and it was reading 15 (nighttime all equipment off) basking bulb is a Arcadia 80w d3 uv. On day 2 I added a 18 inch Arcadia 10% UVB bulb to give off as much light as possible. Both on for 12 hours .

Since looking at it more as we tried not to bother it to much the first couple of days, it looks as if his shell is showing signs of pyramiding? Mainly the line going down the centre almost like a spine?. Is there much we can do to stop this happening? Today it's started eating like mad which is great,we dust the food and put some cuttlefish in there for it. It's been bathed and it seemed to like that. How often should he/she be sprayed ? Could this prevent pyramiding at all? Thank you all and sorry for the long message! but it should cover every aspect of its new habitat.



All the best
Danny and liv

 

[Yellow Turtle01]

Hi!
The enclosure sounds great, but for baby, I'd make nighttime temps slightly higher! Aim for 20c, how about?
I've noticed many baby tortoise have that little ridge, but is shell actually looks great. Tiny bit of dry growth, but very easy to right! The ridge should smooth out.
Only dust a couple times a week, overdoing it can lead to issues Does he eat the cuttlebone? If so, no need to dust. How often are you soaking (getting a bath ) Once daily for 15mins will help hydration (and prevent pyramiding!)
Pyramiding is caused by a dry environment, so that will help very much! How high is humidity? Baby russians are great at70-80%. To help if it's low, keep the soil moist... not dripping, but just 'damp'.
No need to apologize! It's awesome you want to give him a great home.