My Aldabrans

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Baoh

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I think you have mentioned somewhere that these two were calcium deficient at some point (if I am remembering correctly). How did that come to be and what did you enact to reverse the deficiency?
 

Yvonne G

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I'm still working on it, Baoh. So showed his deficiency by dropping his weight when he picked up a back leg to move it forward. If I had been paying attention sooner I would have realized that Bo was dragging instead of walking. I punch out holes in fruit or squash and insert calcium tablets. I give them 1800mg a day (the vet prescribed 1000). I have to feed them from a skewer because they don't cooperate and its hard to get my fingers out of their mouth once they've clamped down. Much easier to pull out the skewer. It took quite a while, but So now walks perfectly fine and is growing nicely. While Bo, on the other hand, still drags himself and is not growing much at all. I have an appointment with the vet next Monday for a rescued Russian tortoise and I'm going to ask her if there's a different or better way to get calcium into the tortoise, or if maybe she thinks there's something else going on with him.

From the time they were hatchlings, they've lived outside in this same pen and just grazed on the grasses and weeds that grow there. When they were babies I occasionally fed them veggies besides the grazing. Their pen is heavy on the dichondra and clover, but there is a lot of grass too. I guess the soil isn't sending much calcium up into the plants, and I never supplemented. Last year I added lime to their pasture and watered it in good. Lime is supposed to help the plants take up the calcium. We'll see.
 

Baoh

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Thanks for sharing that information. I certainly hope the corrective/rehabilitation efforts bear fruit. I spread lime to add calcium to my yard's soil as well and I liberally apply supplemental minerals to my animals' food, too. Perhaps Bo could benefit from a dolly of sorts to correct gate by helping support his weight as his mineral status improves. I know some animals have some bone deformities from mineral deficiencies that can be exacerbated by slick surfaces that do not provide enough traction. Perhaps his mass was so great during his time of growth that the collagen matrix kept going without the mineralization being up to par, leading to somewhat malformed/bent development. If so, it might be hard to improve if the angles are not correct. I do not know if this is the case, obviously, but it is something to think about.
 
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