How round should the shell be ?

[Skye.walker]

When reading into pyramiding always curious on how round the shell should be to start with. My sulcata is a few months old and I’d like to say it’s enclosure is up to par. It is suppose to be completely round or does it have some shape in between plates. Advice ?

 

[Pure Tortoise Power]

When reading into pyramiding always curious on how round the shell should be to start with. My sulcata is a few months old and I’d like to say it’s enclosure is up to par. It is suppose to be completely round or does it have some shape in between plates. Advice ?
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A non-pyramiding tort should have a shell without any notches between scutes. Its supposed to be smooth, no convex or concave. In your case, your tort is starting to pyramid.

Info about the conditions your tort is kept in? Pics of enclosure too?

 

[Toddrickfl1]

Your tortoise looks good to me. It's got some huge growth going on! It's kind of hard to tell by the pics but the Pyamiding, if any, is very minimal.

 

[Skye.walker]

Terrium conditions are such... 2ftx4ft filled with 8-10 inches of coconut coir that gets 1-3 gals of water mixed in weekly depending on water loss. Humid in soil stays 70/90% and 30/45% in air. Has humidifier that gets run daily for a period of time. Day glow on for 12 hours on timer. Basking light on for 10 hours on timer and comes on 1 hour after day glow and shuts off 1 hour prior. Under basking light temps are 105 cooling down on the other side to about 75 min.Humid hide box and a log it loves to dig out under. Daily food of all sorts. Calcium powered on food once a week and Something different every day. Small water dish with fresh water daily. I give it a soak every other day for at least 20-30 mins and give it a nice little scrub. Also included a picture of the first day I got her.

 

[wellington]

If you are using a mercury vapor bulb chances your tort will pyramid, which it is slightly, even though the rest of the care sounds good. Except you should be soaking daily till at least 6 months a year is better. I usually switch to every other day between at a year and temps not lower then 80.

 

[Pure Tortoise Power]

Terrium conditions are such... 2ftx4ft filled with 8-10 inches of coconut coir that gets 1-3 gals of water mixed in weekly depending on water loss. Humid in soil stays 70/90% and 30/45% in air. Has humidifier that gets run daily for a period of time. Day glow on for 12 hours on timer. Basking light on for 10 hours on timer and comes on 1 hour after day glow and shuts off 1 hour prior. Under basking light temps are 105 cooling down on the other side to about 75 min.Humid hide box and a log it loves to dig out under. Daily food of all sorts. Calcium powered on food once a week and Something different every day. Small water dish with fresh water daily. I give it a soak every other day for at least 20-30 mins and give it a nice little scrub. Also included a picture of the first day I got her.
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Is your chamber closed? Humidity drops fast if chamber is opened. The humidity in air is way too low. It should be the same as that of soil that you mentioned. Since your soil is very humid, a few plants can increase the air's humidity, through a process called transpiration (you can look for details online if you don't know what it is). I would suggest growing wheat grass. Not only is it able to transpire, but also can it offer healthy, constant food for your tort.

Also, humidity is one of many factors that causes pyramiding. Another common factor is that your tort is having too much protein.

By the way, do you let your tort sunbathe? It's for allowing your tort get vitamin D3, which is essential for absorbing calcium. Please be reminded, it has to be shined DIRECTLY. Glass actually blocks most of the uv. If the weather conditions don't allow your tort to go out, you can get a uvb light instead, but DO NOT get the coiled ones.

The enclosure's size is decent. And I like the depth of the substrate, offering a real good digging medium for your tort.

Check the growth of your tort by weighing it once a week. If I'm not mistaken, the rate of growth should have a super slight increase as it gets bigger.

 

[Skye.walker]

Yes the terrium has a top to it which just has cut outs for the lights. Being in the middle of winter here in Ohio outside isn’t an option for awhile. The day glow light I speak of is a uvb ho 5.0. I’ve been looking into growing grass or wheat inside the tank so guess I’ll get a move on it. And run my humidifier longer to get the air humidity up more. The protein you speak of is a high probability seeing there’s little fresh grass n weeds supply around currently but I’m already ontop of growing some in my windows. It loves to dig pretty deep down so I keep that coir moist and cleaned regularly. It’s doubled in size in the two months I’ve had it but I will start charting it for sure. Thank you for the tips Pure Tortoise Power