Time frame for complete hardening of plastron

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abclements

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So I was giving this some thought this evening and I figured I ask you guys. By what age should the plastron be completely hardened? Franklin's just over a year old and has an ever so slight give to his plastron still. Should I up his calcium intake? He gets plenty of outdoor time and has a uvb 5.0 tube in his enclosure.
 

apromann4

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I got may redfoot last yr. In Nov. 2.75" by April he' s plaston is very hard, i don' t know he' s exact age

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My 2nd tort, a cherry head, got him last May, 2.5", he's platron is starting to get hard now, lets wait for the masters, just sharing what i have experience so far

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abclements

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Ya mine has just the tiniest little give when I press and was curious. I thought it was taking a little long. So for now I'm gonna up his calcium intake.
 

Tom

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This is a gradual process that takes place as they grow. How it "feels" to us, is in direct correlation with the thickness of the plastron. It gradually thickens and feels stiffer as the tortoise grows. There is some "give" in my 30-40 pound sulcatas, if you push hard enough. They have lived outside for years with an excellent, varied, high calcium diet.

While an overly soft or spongy carapace can indicate a serious problem, as long as your tortoise is growing and has a good diet, I wouldn't stress too much over this.

Does your tortoise get any real sunshine? The florescent tubes don't have the best track record for me when used as a SOLE source of UV. This is so hard to answer over the internet. In person, it would take about 5 seconds to assess whether your tortoise's plastron feels "normal".
 

abclements

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It definitely doesn't give very much. I have to apply a decent amount of pressure to get it to. Hearing that your 40 pounders can have a little give makes me think I'm doing all right. It's definitely not a " soft spongey" feeling. And yes now that it's finally warm here in eastern WA, he's been getting at least 7 or 8 hours a week of outside sunshine. Its really dry here so I try to limit his outdoor time to and hour or so a day, sometimes a little longer if the humidity isn't 14% lol his diet is Mazuri/ZooMed forest diet, all sorts of weeds I can pick from my yard, supplemented with store bought spring mix and fruit. So he's definitely got a really good variety
 

EchoTheLeoTort

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If its a slight give but pretty stiff, i'd say its okay. I Sadly just had a hatchling whose plastron and shell started getting soft. The plastron was actually concaving in and was super easy to press in. Just the little pressure I applied to the carapace to pick him up almost made parts of it go in. You will KNOW when its a problem. I think your tort is just fine and growing
 

abclements

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I'm so sorry about your poor little echo! I had a Hermann's that did the same thing as Echo, so I know what a soft shell is like :( I'm not worried about the soft shell thing though because it is slowly, slowly getting harder. It's just barely compressible and springs right back. I was more just curious if my guy was a little behind the curve, if you know what I mean.
 
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