Advice on shell and growth (and a few other things)

Avery.s

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Hello!

This is Eli, my Hermanns that I believe was hatched in October. After weighing him I realized that he weighs a bit more than he should for his size which is resulting in some slightly odd shell growth (hard to get a good picture of). I was wondering what more experienced people do to ensure their tortoise isn't over-eating and also any tips on avoiding this type of shell growth/pyramiding. He eats a variety of dark greens, weeds and occasion other vegetables (pepper, carrot etc) and Mazrui pellets with a calcium and vitamin supplement regularly. He soaks every day, drinks often and eats normally. He has a basking spot of 90, with 70-80 overall and cooler areas and humid areas. I'm mainly just looking for any advice and anything suggestions to improve his table. (please note, these pictures were take right before I replaced his water/cleaned out his food and bathed him so his table and him usually aren't so messy). Thank you so much!
 

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crimson_lotus

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Nothing looks weird to me. The enclosure is nice, but 1. I would cover it so your baby has humidity to continue to promote healthy shell growth, and 2. the temperature gauges are often inaccurate so I would get a digital hygrometer that measures both humidity and temp. They're pretty cheap.

70 degrees sounds too cold for a baby so I'd boost the temperatures up as well to stay in the 80s range.
 

wellington

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Your tort is pryramiding due to lack of humidity. You can't keep a proper humidity in an open enclosure. Also that disc you are using for temp and/or humidity is not an accurate device to use.
Read the caresheet in the hermanns section and get a digital gauge for proper temp and humidity readings.
 

Avery.s

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Nothing looks weird to me. The enclosure is nice, but 1. I would cover it so your baby has humidity to continue to promote healthy shell growth, and 2. the temperature gauges are often inaccurate so I would get a digital hygrometer that measures both humidity and temp. They're pretty cheap.

70 degrees sounds too cold for a baby so I'd boost the temperatures up as well to stay in the 80s range.

Hi! thank you so much for your reply! I usually cover the whole table at night but I will definitely find a way to have more coverage during the day. I forgot to mention that I do have the digital temp/humidity as well, I just got the gauge because the digital doesn't reach to that side of the table. I ALSO meant to say 80-85 degrees overall, 70 in the very coolest areas were he doesn't spend time. sorry for the mix up, thank you so much for the suggestions!
 

wellington

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Hi! thank you so much for your reply! I usually cover the whole table at night but I will definitely find a way to have more coverage during the day. I forgot to mention that I do have the digital temp/humidity as well, I just got the gauge because the digital doesn't reach to that side of the table. I ALSO meant to say 80-85 degrees overall, 70 in the very coolest areas were he doesn't spend time. sorry for the mix up, thank you so much for the suggestions!
Glad you have another gauge. Covering during the day will help with giving more humidity during the day to help stop the pyramiding. Otherwise looks fine.
 

Avery.s

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Location (City and/or State)
Toronto, Canada
Your tort is pryramiding due to lack of humidity. You can't keep a proper humidity in an open enclosure. Also that disc you are using for temp and/or humidity is not an accurate device to use.
Read the caresheet in the hermanns section and get a digital gauge for proper temp and humidity readings.

Thank you for the reply! again, I do cover at night (working on finding a cover for the day) and humidity is usually 50-70+%. I do have several of the digital gauges, the disc was given to me so I just use it for the area where the digitals don't reach. Thank you again for your reply, I appreciate it!
 

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