New to Russian Tortoises: Is Francis' shell healthy??

[PetHumanOfFrancis]

Hello,

I am originally a box turtle person, but I made the leap to Russian tortoises about a month ago. He is a sweetie named Francis. More info about him can be found in the Intro threads:
http://tortoiseforum.org/thread-15842.html

I love little Francis to death, but I am concerned about his shell. It seems irregular to me and I wonder if he was neglected in the pet store. I now have a UV light for him, give him lots of exercise, supplement his food with calcium, and I keep his humidity at 60-65%.

Can you all take a look at these pics to see if he is pyramiding? What else can I do to prevent this?

Thank you so much! I don't want him to be in any pain!

http://i940.photobucket.com/albums/ad242/PetHumanOfFrancis/Shell3.jpg

http://i940.photobucket.com/albums/ad242/PetHumanOfFrancis/Shell2.jpg

http://i940.photobucket.com/albums/ad242/PetHumanOfFrancis/Shell1.jpg

http://i940.photobucket.com/albums/ad242/PetHumanOfFrancis/Shell4.jpg

 

[dmmj]

I wil be honest to my unexpert eye he does look a little pyramided, and it looks like a male also, due to his long tail. Does his tail have a slit in it, if it does he is most likely a male and if I am not mistaken close to full size maybe another inch or two, will help correct the pyramiding, gthougbh minor it looks to me. what is his diet like?

 

[Stephanie Logan]

He's adorable.

Here's what bad pyramiding looks like:

So you can see your Francis is in pretty good shape for now.

 

[PetHumanOfFrancis]

Yeah...I was afraid he was too but wasn't sure if I was imagining things.

He has a low protein diet of mixed greens with calcium from cuttle bone sprinkled on it and squash as an occasional treat. I am in the process of growing dandelions as well. I didn't want to buy or pick any in case they had chemicals on it.

I also have Fluker's Calcium with Vitamin D, but he won't eat anything if it's on there. I guess he doesn't like it. I was going to "wait him out" until he was so hungry he would have to eat it, but then I was afraid a few days without any calcium at all would make his pyramiding worse. Ahh...a double edged sword.

He is def. a male! And very mischievious. He doesn't seem to be in pain so hopefully I am catching this early...

 

[dmmj]

I don't want you to worry, his is very minor just cosmetic, and it takes years of abuse to see the results, not just a few days, like I said I think he has an inch or two to go till so most of that can be reversed. You can also leave chunks of cuttlebone in there so he can munch on them when he feels like it. My 3 russians love hibiscus flowers, grape leaves, and radish tops to name just a few.

 

[Maggie Cummings]

I am getting the impression that you don't understand pyramiding much. Russians mostly do not pyramid. He would only be in any pain if he was pyramided like the one that Stephanie showed you. Stop worrying about him and start enjoying him as he is beautiful and to my inexperienced eyes he is not pyramided. It looks and sounds like he is on a good diet, you can buy dandelions and rinse them in water and they will be fine for him to eat. You can "lightly* sprinkle calcium over his food and he should eat it just fine. You can buy TNT from Joe and use that about 3 times a week if you like. TNT has all kinds of good stuff in it including calcium and it is flavored so tortoises will like it.
You can get TNT here...

http://www.carolinapetsupply.com/catalog/index.php

But please stop worrying so much about him pyramiding and start enjoying him more.

 

[PetHumanOfFrancis]

Thanks!! The TNT sounds like an awesome addition!

 

[tortoisenerd]

He looks great! Mine is much more lumpy than yours and it still wasn't considered pyramiding through the opinions here. He looks very close to full grown to me, if not already there, as I don't see growth lines. Have you been measuring and weighing him to check? I'd do every month. If your light is UVB or the tort gets sufficient sun (you need UVB unless the tort is getting out 5 days a week for a couple hours for sun, then you can just use a house light bulb), then you just want to do a pure calcium powder or cuttlebone (no D3) a few times a week. Start putting so little on you can barely see it, and if he eats that, slowly increase it until you have enough on there. If he will eat it with the cuttlebone sprinkled just do that. The TNT has a high calcium content too, but it is just ground up weeds and stuff so no where as near as the 100% calcium powder. I use TNT for my tort and think it is great, but I also use calcium. You can't do too much pure calcium, but could overdose the stuff with the D3 in it. You could also get the human calcium supplement--it is cheaper than the reptile stuff. The organic dandelion greens at the store are just fine, as are any other organic leafy green there. If you want to grow some that is great (as long as you are at it I would grow a large variety and see if you can get off all the grocery store greens), but the organic from the store is fine as the farms get inspected for compliance.

 

[ChiKat]

He's gorgeous!! His shell looks great to me

 

[egyptiandan]

His shell looks fine to me He's a wild caught male and like Kate mentioned he looks to be about adult size (so not going to grow much more). He's probably about 10 years old.

Danny

 

[PetHumanOfFrancis]

10 yrs old already?? Wow. I know that is very young in tortoise years but I guess I thought he was pretty young (like a "toddler tortoise") since he is so friendly & outgoing with humans and has a baby face...which are not scientific assessments at all, lol.

He'll still outlive me!

 

[tortoisenerd]

Elaina-It is of my opinion with UVB you should only use pure calcium as the tort makes the D3 from the UVB, and D3 is fat soluble while calcium is water soluble. Very tough to overdose calcium but you could with D3. Do some research on it and see what you think.

 

[Maggie Cummings]

Ahh, I know this is specific to Francis, but I have a quick question too...

I have a UVB bulb, but my tort doesn't go outside (she's too small). The calcium supplement I have has D3 in it.. Should I switch to regular calcium? I know it doesn't contain phosphorous, but I wasn't sure how easy it would be for her to overdose on vitamin D.

I believe they can OD on D3 relatively easily. But I use calcium with D3 on my animals who don't go out. Just sprinkle lightly 3 times a week and that's probably enough. If I am wrong someone will let us know that. I also use bird vitamins in the soaking water also. You might try that also.

 

[Yourlocalpoet]

He doesn't look pyramided to me at all, his shell looks very nice indeed, beautiful tortoise!

 

[Floof]

Pyramiding? What pyramiding? I think his shell looks fantastic! He's a lovely little tort.