Thoughts on Growth?

[JEllis]

Hi all! Thank you so much for your help so far! I've been actioning the care sheets and greatly appreciate them. We recently changed to a deep coco coir substrate and Bos is LOVING being able to dig deep at night, so thank you all for the recommendations there! Wanted to share some pics of growth on our little one just to check if this was normal/abnormal/concerning (added pics in two different lights as its hard to capture the exact colors).

We think Bos is about 7-8 months, currently 3 inches carapace length and weighed in today as 92 grams. When we got Bos about 2 months ago we did a check-up appointment with our vet and she said Bos was "light" for her size. At the time Bos was weighing in around 52 grams and was roughly 2 1/3 - 2 3/4 inches carapace length. We were told to feed a mixture about the size of her shell each day (we do a mix of items approved by tortoise table) with calcium and vitamin supplements our vet recommended. We also use Mazuri pellets after soaking as she is obsessed with them and we sprinkle 3-4 crushed up over the rest of her greens.

Any thoughts would be welcome. To my eye it all looked very symmetrical, but would love additional thoughts.

 

[RosemaryDW]

A beautiful tortoise with some new growth.

I don’t know that he/she needs vitamins and calcium every day but if it’s in the care sheet, stick with it.

I’m not much on the shell-food ratio. Feed your Russian as much as it will eat, every day. So long as they can walk it off it’s no big deal.

Does it weigh enough? Does it grow enough? It’s all dependent on conditions and it sounds like yours are good. Does your tortoise feel solid in your hand, relative to its size? BOOM, you’re good! Keep doing what you’re doing. My vet said our Russian had “room to grow” at her first appointment; boy did she ever.