Pumpkin's fourth vertebral scute seems to have a slight slope to it, unlike the rest of his scutes. I was wondering if this was a normal feature for Hermann's tortoises or if it could be a sign of a condition such as calcium deficiency or MBD.
Is sloping of the shell abnormal?
- Thread starter SunnySideUp
- Start date
I don't see any exterior signs of MBD. They will slough quite a bit. Your giving good nutritious foods, calcium, UVB and outside light time?
I feed Pumpkin a mix of dandelion, spring mix (with 95% of the spinach removed), kale, white clover, bittercress, deadnettle, and wild violets (since those are the seasonal weeds at the moment). If I could find more weeds I would absolutely add them. I sometimes give him a teeny tiny bit of romaine and cucumber for treats. I'm working on growing a tortoise seed mix so he can have that to eat as well. I have a repti-cal calcium supplement but he seems to hate it and eats very little whenever I put it on, even if the dusting is very light. There is a cuttlebone in his enclosure, though. He has a UVB strip light but I have yet been able to take him outside because of weather. Saturday is forecasted to be sunny and warm, though, so I plan on taking him out then.
For your repti-cal, just go with a small pinch once a week. Dusting the food is not needed and seems to make the food disgusting to many tortoises.
I haven't been doing it every day. In fact last time was maybe four days ago. I may try again tomorrow, just to see if he will tolerate any before I go looking for another supplement. I'll put as little on as possible to see if I can get him to warm up to it.
