Munching down

ahmed helmy

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why all of your egyptian tortoises have pyramiding ??!!!!
for decades in egypt
and almost every home have at least one egyptian tortoise
we never have pyramiding in our tortoises !!!!!
 

tortadise

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why all of your egyptian tortoises have pyramiding ??!!!!
for decades in egypt
and almost every home have at least one egyptian tortoise
we never have pyramiding in our tortoises !!!!!
Because they're not all wild collected like what's found where your from. With the exception of the largest female. She is a wild collected specimen from 30 years ago which has a little bit of pyramiding.
 

ahmed helmy

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so that means that there is something wrong in their diet or humidity or heating or lightening
because in Egypt even if they collected so young from the wild they never develop pyramiding
we raise them in the balcony with no heating or lightening systems
in egypt tortoises rarely raised indoor
 

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tortadise

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so that means that there is something wrong in their diet or humidity or heating or lightening
because in Egypt even if they collected so young from the wild they never develop pyramiding
we raise them in the balcony with no heating or lightening systems
in egypt tortoises rarely raised indoor
That's correct. Being on the balcony in the native land gives them the perfect environment in which they're found. Foods typically don't have much to do with pyramiding. Unless of course it's just entirely incorrect for a herbivore like kleinmanni being fed meat, eggs, or just unsuitable vegetables or staple diets. There are a rarer species over in the United States, but the husbandry is getting better and better. The younger ones in my group I raised from a hatchling size, they're pretty close to being perfectly smooth, sprays and moisture and cool evenings seems to be a great method that has grown them beautifully in captivity.
 

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In my point of view and I have 10 egyptians from different breeders. when you get them early with about 6 weeks and you keep after it soaking and offering them hydrating food (high water content, no iceberg lettuce) you can avoid it. I bought an 1 year old egyptian with pyramiding and it 'grew out" with more hydration. It was not hydrated enough from the beginning.this is though only my observation.
 

tortadise

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I think that high humidity rate (over 80 % now ) in its native land (egypt) prevent them from having pyramiding
Yep. Lots of hued ration helps too. From when I got the little ones they already had tiny amount of pyramiding and grew pretty perfect and smooth from that point on. The two bigger females from a zoo in NW United states came out pretty close to wild looking. It's a challenge to replicate such a unique environment like coastal Egypt,Libya, and Israel though. So any ups/downs in temps and relative moisture and pressure vary vastly that's relatively easy to simulate but not perfect.
 

tortadise

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In my point of view and I have 10 egyptians from different breeders. when you get them early with about 6 weeks and you keep after it soaking and offering them hydrating food (high water content, no iceberg lettuce) you can avoid it. I bought an 1 year old egyptian with pyramiding and it 'grew out" with more hydration. It was not hydrated enough from the beginning.this is though only my observation.
Same here. Even the 30 year old female (has some. She came from a zoo up north) she was WC years back as a young specimen and still pyramided. Not the worst but still present. I had a 2.4 about 18 years ago that were WC. One of the last groups of WC egyptians. 3 of the females were pyramided but not bad.
 

Rocky Mountain Man

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I think that high humidity rate (over 80 % now ) in its native land (egypt) prevent them from having pyramiding
I live in very dry climate here in rocky mountain Colorado. It is really difficult to maintain that level of humidity. I do believe that high humidity level helps hatchlings grow smoothly and avoid pyramiding, I tried soaking them every day, multiple water dishes inside the enclosure, many plants and etc. I am happy to see some of mine grow smoothly but still some made me worried. The ones that are smooth like bowling balls are also growing slowly whereas the little bumpy one happens to be the big eater (see attached photo) - hatched later but outgrow all his big sisters/brothers. I had thought I kept mine too wet as I spray enclosure many times and soak them 20 min every day, but I guess it may be still not enough as most of the time the enclosure humidity level drops to 20% or so.
 

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wellington

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I can't believe you have all females? Seems most species, females are so hard to come by. Hope you get a male soon and hatch some of those beauties.
 

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I live in very dry climate here in rocky mountain Colorado. It is really difficult to maintain that level of humidity. I do believe that high humidity level helps hatchlings grow smoothly and avoid pyramiding, I tried soaking them every day, multiple water dishes inside the enclosure, many plants and etc. I am happy to see some of mine grow smoothly but still some made me worried. The ones that are smooth like bowling balls are also growing slowly whereas the little bumpy one happens to be the big eater (see attached photo) - hatched later but outgrow all his big sisters/brothers. I had thought I kept mine too wet as I spray enclosure many times and soak them 20 min every day, but I guess it may be still not enough as most of the time the enclosure humidity level drops to 20% or so.
I keep my egyptians not higher than 30%. indoors. I combine the proper hydrating food and soak them once to twice a week. I see a difference in the ones that got from early on soaking and hydrating food.
 

tortadise

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I can't believe you have all females? Seems most species, females are so hard to come by. Hope you get a male soon and hatch some of those beauties.
I've got 5 little ones about a year old. Few look male just by size. But few more years and will be certain.
 

Salspi

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As far as daily soaks go, at what age would you recommend changing that? And, what would be the new optimal soaking schedule?
 

tortadise

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As far as daily soaks go, at what age would you recommend changing that? And, what would be the new optimal soaking schedule?
I slowed down the soakings after about a year old or so. It doesn't hurt anything to soak. So it's completely up to the keeper really.
 
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