Tom said:Pyramiding is not caused by food or protein. It is caused by growth in the wrong conditions. My preferred method of feeding is allowing them to graze on their own in an outdoor enclosure full of weeds and grasses. If the weather and the tortoises size or age prevent that then I feed them once or twice a day.
cherylim said:I feed Emrys once a day, but he also has constant access to plants growing within his enclosure.
katherine said:That is not consistent with my experiences. My tortoises have 24/7 access to food as they primarily eat grass/weeds and are housed on it. They also do not pyramid.
I'd love to read the paper you found, assuming it is current. I have read several dated papers from common prior belief era that pyramiding was caused from high protein intake, but never seen any convincing studies done, and have not seen anything like this recently. Thanks for sharing, and please do post the publication when you have a moment. Additionally, while I am sure many foods contain phosphorus I am aware offhand that nuts and seeds usually have particularly high phosphorus content... But I have no idea why a tortoise would be eating lots of those anyways so probably not applicable.
HtVic said:cherylim said:I feed Emrys once a day, but he also has constant access to plants growing within his enclosure.
what kind of plants are there?
: ) : ) : ) : )Jacqui said:I am a firm believer that no one thing causes pyramiding, that is a combination of several things of which diet is one of those things (not just what you feed, but when you feed and what amounts, during what environmental conditions ).