Does it look overweight?

Newsully2020

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Does it look overweight? It weighs 58 grams. Not sure exact hatch date. Just looks plump for it to be so tiny.
 

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Markw84

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Your tortoise looks good from what we can see. Tortoises don't get fat. They don't store fat for energy reserves. Mammals do, Tortoises don't. They store glycogen in their cells throughout their body for energy reserves. Even species that brumate (hibernate) do not store fat for the winter. They go into brumation at the same weight as they've had all year if healthy. This is left-over thinking from seeing mammals that hibernate fattening up for the winter. Tortoises do not use fat that way. An older tortoise with lots of food and poor ability to exercise can gain too much mass and be unhealthy because of that, but not from storing fat.
 

Newsully2020

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Jan 20, 2021
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Your tortoise looks good from what we can see. Tortoises don't get fat. They don't store fat for energy reserves. Mammals do, Tortoises don't. They store glycogen in their cells throughout their body for energy reserves. Even species that brumate (hibernate) do not store fat for the winter. They go into brumation at the same weight as they've had all year if healthy. This is left-over thinking from seeing mammals that hibernate fattening up for the winter. Tortoises do not use fat that way. An older tortoise with lots of food and poor ability to exercise can gain too much mass and be unhealthy because of that, but not from storing fat.
Thank you for that reply. I had searched and it said they could get overweight so I wanted to make sure. It eats very well
 

nicoleann2214

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Does it look overweight? It weighs 58 grams. Not sure exact hatch date. Just looks plump for it to be so tiny.
Hello! You may want to switch your guy over to a closed chamber with a good amount of space. @Tom has a lot of good articles on here for Sulcata care.
 

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