bolim04
Member
- Joined
- Mar 22, 2017
- Messages
- 50
The reason your tortoises are showing signs of pyramiding is because they have been allowed to grow in dry conditions. You need to make sure your tortoises are well hydrated, they need baths that they can soak in at there own will, as babies they need to be kept super hydrated, one method is to soak you tortoise in warm water every day for around 15 mins. Yours don't look like babies any more, but because they look dry I would give them a good 30min soak in Luke warm water. Spray your torts Carapace every day in the morning and in the evening. You need to have humid hides that they sleep in. Humidity wants to be 80%+.I have 3 RF's that i've got last year, but sadly they have a pyramidal shell.
What food/diet can i give to them to reduce that please?
Thank you in advance. View attachment 204148View attachment 204149View attachment 204150
RF's are omnivorous, don't forget about animal protein, veggies, mushrooms. There are 2 sites by our Forum members that I had used as my RF Raising Bible: 1) Tortoise Library , and 2) Turtletary. You should be able to easily find those through google search. The first site is RF specific. The second has great RF section. Both with current and up to date information. There is a long list of diet items there. I have been feeding mine store bought greens (collards, endive, escarole, raddicchio, mustard greens, cactus pads and prickly pear fruit, mushrooms, in Europe you have much better access to all kinds of forest mushrooms. Texas is too dang hot for them to grow plus I live just outside capitol city where common grounds are likely to be sprayed with stuff. I have planted a nice big Tortoise Garden for mine but until all the plants mature I felt safer to feed mine farmers market food. There is just no safe place for me to forage around here. For fruit other than prickly pear (which grows here in abundance!) mine love all kinds of berries and melons, tropical fruit, and really any kind of fruit except for citrus. For protein I feed some kind of meat or egg 1-2 x week , mine adore steamed shrimp (no salt/no spices) cooked chicken, I even made a steak Tatar for them couple times , fresh lean beef steak very finely scraped meat fibers into a paste like consistency- they devoured it! Or some people use good quality cat or dog food. I also add a little commercial tortoise food to their fresh stuff. Mine like it enough that when i soak the pellets and mix that pellet mash into their chopped dandelions and endive, they go after that salad much more eagerly. As for pyramiding, from what I have read if it's just a cosmetic issue I wouldn't worry about it, however Anyfoot's suggetstion to hydrate is very valid in my view snd I practice it as well. Your RFs are very pretty