Pyramiding Help?

[Moon Masked Poet]

Although these posts seem rather common (by a quick search) I still feel the need to post and ask what I'm supposed to do with a pyramiding tortoise.

Chile is our seven year old Male Redfoot, and while he seems perfectly fine, he does have some pyramiding that makes me worry. I've read about the various conditions that cause pyramiding, along the way learning that most of the development patterns are decided in the first few weeks/months of life, but there aren't a lot of people who can help me correct pyramiding after it's started.
His diet consists of:
Baby Arugula
Baby Lettuce (Not Iceberg)
Tomatoes
Oranges
Corn Cobs (After we've eaten corn)
Strawberries
Cuttle Bones
Occasional Dandelion leaves (From un-sprayed lawns)
Watermelon
Cantaloupe Rines
Varied Leafy Vegetable Mixed
Kale
(Not all at once though)(And he sometimes eats the houseplants, if they're too close to the ground)

Right now he lives in a plastic pond- the kind you normally put in the ground- that would be about 4ft X 8ft if it were rectangular (it's amoeba shaped). He has two heat lamps, one red and one black (for day and night) as well as a regular light. The two ends of his cage are dark and covered so he can hide. We have a dirt/mulch mixture as a bedding, which currently houses a family of spring tails, and two slugs. We're trying to keep it as humid as possible. We've also tried to grow some plants in there so that he could walk through them like it was a rain forest, but he kept trampling and eating them.
He shares his enclosure with a Russian roommate, but the Nikolai spend most of his time in a hole underneath the lights.
During the day, when we're home, we let Chile run around the house, and he enjoys taking laps around our inside walls. He loves going into the Sun-room, when it's nice of course, and really loves being outside under supervision. Our dog is an expert at finding Chile when he disappears into the flowerbeds.

He doesn't seem to be affected by the pyramiding- he's very active, has a good appetite, drinks plenty of water, and is extremely friendly.

I have three pictures of Chile here- Not sure if any of them are helpful. Any advice is welcome
As I'm not sure those photos worked, the pic are also here: http://www.tortoiseforum.org/media/albums/chile.374/

 

[lismar79]

It is the lack of humidity that is the problem. Try constructing a tent or top of some sort to keep the humidity in. I would highly highly suggest getting the russian his own enclosure. I would bet you anything he hides all the time because he is trying to be out of the big ones way. Torts do not do well in pairs. Also you should not mix species. The can cary bacteria that will kill onther species. Very pretty red you have there

 

[crimson_lotus]

Pyramiding is all about the lack of humidity, and your tortoises face looks pretty dry. Russians require fairly low humidity, they can take lower temps, and they hibernate while red foots need very high humidity with high temperatures and they do not hibernate. The tortoises you have need very different environments and different diets. Please consider separating them.

 

[crimson_lotus]

Here's a good list of foods that are fit and not fit for tortoises:

http://www.thetortoisetable.org.uk/site/plants_19.asp?thissection=8

You will notice citrus, tomatoes, and corn are on the "do not feed" list - I personally feed tomatoes and corn once every month at the most, so a little bit won't hurt every once in a while. Russians don't eat fruit so I hope that diet does not pertain to your Russian as well.

Red lights can confuse tortoises into eating their substrate, and they need it dark at night to sleep. Is the red light for daytime use? I'm a bit confused. Do you have any UVB lighting? If they stay in for winter you will need some sort of UVB source.

 

[Moon Masked Poet]

Here's a good list of foods that are fit and not fit for tortoises:

http://www.thetortoisetable.org.uk/site/plants_19.asp?thissection=8

You will notice citrus, tomatoes, and corn are on the "do not feed" list - I personally feed tomatoes and corn once every month at the most, so a little bit won't hurt every once in a while. Russians don't eat fruit so I hope that diet does not pertain to your Russian as well.

Red lights can confuse tortoises into eating their substrate, and they need it dark at night to sleep. Is the red light for daytime use? I'm a bit confused. Do you have any UVB lighting? If they stay in for winter you will need some sort of UVB source.

The Fruits are for the Redfoot only, yes. We only give him little bits of the oranges, only once or twice a month though. I didn't know about the corn, since he only chews on the cob and not the actual kernels. I'll look further into that, thank you.

The red is daytime only, normally as a secondary heat source only in the winter. The black light is the one we have on at night, it's a heat only bulb. We have both on a timer so that they switch to give him better day/night. We do have a white UVB bulb too, I forgot to mention that.

Thank you.

 

[Zeko]

I can pretty much say as a fact, that diet has nothing to do with pyramiding.

My guy has high protein offered at each meal and is perfectly smooth because of the 90%+ humidity.

 

[Moon Masked Poet]

It is the lack of humidity that is the problem. Try constructing a tent or top of some sort to keep the humidity in. I would highly highly suggest getting the russian his own enclosure. I would bet you anything he hides all the time because he is trying to be out of the big ones way. Torts do not do well in pairs. Also you should not mix species. The can cary bacteria that will kill onther species. Very pretty red you have there

That's what we've been thinking might be the problem, good to know that we weren't far off. Right now our plan is to try and construct a Plexiglas top for at least half of the enclosure. Our issue is trying to keep the lights under the top so that the heat and UVB can get through well.

We've had both Nikolai and Chile checked out by a veterinarian, so I think they're all clean. Chile does pick on his roommate sometimes, and we've considered moving Nikolai out before, but we don't have anything ready for him yet. I'll definitely look into creating another tortoise table for the little guy. Thanks.

 

[Moon Masked Poet]

I can pretty much say as a fact, that diet has nothing to do with pyramiding.

My guy has high protein offered at each meal and is perfectly smooth because of the 90%+ humidity.

View attachment 128378

Aww, you have a really cute tortoise~

Humidity seems to be the general conclusion people have been making for Chile. I'm definitely going to try and build a cover for him to hold in some water, thank you.

 

[lismar79]

Good plan maybe build the red something new that holds humidity in better by design and give the russian the open top since they do not need high humidity. Look through post of enclosed chambers on here where the lights and everything else is inside. That should help your red a lot.