Crush da Baum
Well-Known Member
I got my tortoise from pet smart and I was wondering if Squirt is healthy. I feed him Romain lettuce and kale every day and he has a UVB light and a basking lamp. The white stuff on his beak is calcium powder.
Help! Is this pyramiding
- Thread starter Crush da Baum
- Start date
It's unusual to get a captive born russian at Petsmart, but I think that's what you've got there. Yes there's a little pyramiding there from being kept too dry during his first year, but in this case it's merely cosmetic and nothing to worry about.
Your diet needs some adjusting, though. He needs more variety, including weeds and plants.
Your diet needs some adjusting, though. He needs more variety, including weeds and plants.
Crush da Baum
Well-Known Member
Thank you so much!
I agree with Yvonne.
Also, all the big chain pet stores give out terrible information and sell all the wrong products for tortoises. Did they sell you a 40 gallon tank and a half log hide? Ramped water bowl? Red bulb for night time and a cfl for UV? All of that is junk and potentially harmful to your tortoise.
Give these a read through for the right care info:
tortoiseforum.org
tortoiseforum.org
Russians aren't grass eaters, but if you skip all the text and scroll down, there is a good list of foods to feed your new tortoise. Kale is not good to feed very often, and romaine is lacking in everything your tortoise needs. If you must use grocery store foods, favor endive and escarole most, and mix in arugula, cilantro, collard mustard and turnip greens, bok choy, and other for variety once in a while.
Also, all the big chain pet stores give out terrible information and sell all the wrong products for tortoises. Did they sell you a 40 gallon tank and a half log hide? Ramped water bowl? Red bulb for night time and a cfl for UV? All of that is junk and potentially harmful to your tortoise.
Give these a read through for the right care info:
Beginner Mistakes
To comment on Tom's article, go here: http://www.tortoiseforum.org/Thread-split-Beginner-Mistakes#axzz1tG8s05M5 Over the years many of us, myself included, have made many of these mistakes, and we have certainly seen them made many times by others. With springtime upon us and many new...
tortoiseforum.org
Russian Tortoise Care Sheet
Russian tortoises have great personalities, are very hardy, tolerate a wide variety of enclosure parameters, stay small, and are generally a good "starter" tortoise in my opinion. Here is how I like to set them up: Indoor Enclosure type and size: Most people want to know the minimum size...
tortoiseforum.org
Russians aren't grass eaters, but if you skip all the text and scroll down, there is a good list of foods to feed your new tortoise. Kale is not good to feed very often, and romaine is lacking in everything your tortoise needs. If you must use grocery store foods, favor endive and escarole most, and mix in arugula, cilantro, collard mustard and turnip greens, bok choy, and other for variety once in a while.
Crush da Baum
Well-Known Member
Thank you so much! You clearly know your stuff. I am new to the forum and new to be a tortoise owner. I originally bought a 40 gallon tank but currently they live in a large plastic container. I am planning on building a big 6 by 3 foot wooden tortoise table soon. Thank you so much for telling me about pet smart and they did sell me everything you mentioned! I still have a ramped water bowl, half log hide, day time basing lamp, and UV light. Is this harmful and should I change it?
Everything is explained in the threads, but I forgot to link this one with the food list. This is the one I mentioned above about skipping the text and scrolling down to the food list:
For Those Who Have a Young Sulcata...
Over and over I type up and answer diet questions and try to get people feeding the right stuff, but I find that the "norm" is grocery store food. Grocery store food is expensive, a hassle to obtain, and very low on the list of what is best for sulcatas. These tortoises are GRASS eaters. From...
tortoiseforum.org
Additionally, here is more help with heating and lighting:
There are four elements to heating and lighting:
- Basking bulb. I use 65 watt floods from the hardware store. I run them on a timer for 12 hours and adjust the height to get the correct basking temp under them. You can mount a fixture on the ceiling, or hang a dome lamp from the ceiling. Go lower or higher wattage if this makes the enclosure too hot or not warm enough. Do not use "spot" bulbs, mercury vapor bulbs or halogen bulbs.
- Ambient heat maintenance. Unless your house gets unusually cold at night, you can skip this step for a Russian or other Testudo species. Night lows above 60 require no night heat for Testudo species.
- Light. I use florescent tubes for this purpose. Something in the 5000-6500K color range will look the best. Most tubes at the store are in the 2500K range and they look yellowish. I've been using LEDs lately and they are great, and run cooler than a florescent. This can be set on the same timer as the basking bulb. If your tortoises room is already adequately lit, you don't need this one either.
- UV. If you can get your tortoise outside in a safe secure enclosure for an hour 2 or 3 times a week, you won't need indoor UV. If you want it anyway, get one of the newer HO type fluorescent tubes. Which type will depend on mounting height. It helps to have a UV meter to test and see what your bulb is actually putting out at your mounting height. Plexi-glass or screen tops will filter out some or all of the UV produced by your bulb. Regular "T 8" type UV tubes produce hardly any UV. CFL type UV bulbs are also ineffective, and sometimes dangerous, and should not be used.
Crush da Baum
Well-Known Member
Wow thank you for telling me this. I think I am just going to take him out in the afternoon instead of having a UV.
Nothing beats the natural sunlight.
He needs some fixing up with regard to the early pyramiding. Make sure you check out the correct humidity levels and the temperatures for this species. He seems to have been kept too dry to start. Daily warm water soaks (supervised) will do him good and help prevent further pyramiding.
Crush da Baum
Well-Known Member
Will it go away if he has more humidity?
More and more of the Russian tortoises exported from that part of the world are actually now coming from tortoise farms. 10's of thousands of them. When you farm tortoises, there is a big difference in how they grow as there are not the natural habitats and microclimates available. Feeding schedules and behavior is altered. Just as with sulcatas when they kept them in pens and started to farm them to a degree in Africa, they all grew pyramided. We will now see much more pyramiding in imported Russians now, even though Testudos are much more resistant to pyramiding metabolically.
