tort growing to fast

[pepsiandjac]

I think one on my greeks is gaining weight much too fast,when i bought him in Sept 2012 he was 4.5 cm and 18 gms i weighed him today and hes
9.5 cm and 210gms.He's only ever been fed normal weeds like dandelions,plantain and all that kind,I did try him with mazuri when i first got him but he didn't like it.He's nearly the same size as my 5y old Russian.Any tips on how to slow his growth,he's out in his enclosure in the days and everything is growing in there.

 

[gregcalverley0327]

There's no problem growing like that, I wouldn't change anything your doing


0.3.0 sulcata tortoise
(Manavi, aspen, Bronx)
1.0.0 Russian tortoise
(Ivan)
1 Great Dane
(Koko)

 

[GBtortoises]

The most likely reason that your Greek tortoise has doubled in size in less than a year is due to being awake and active the entire time. In the wild they would have bromated (hibernated) for almost that entire time and not have grown except when awake and active. It is common with tortoise raised in captivity. It is not necessarily a good thing, but to some degree unavoidable unless you either choose to brumate your tortoises during the time that they would be doing so in the wild. The alternative while they're active is to more closely monitor their diet in both content and quantity. Accelerated growth can be an issue and cause the nails, beak, carapace and plastron to grow more rapidly than the soft body parts. In severe cases it can also cause permanent growth deformities.
So growing a tortoise fast really isn't ideal.

 

[ascott]

growing a tortoise fast really isn't ideal.

Absolutely.

 

[lisa127]

I have a three toed box turtle that was 40 grams in May of 2012. Now, in May of 2013, he/she is 358 grams. The fast growth worries me as well. But the growth is even and smooth so I don't know what I could change.

 

[Artemis the Tortoise]

Can I see a picture of your russian


Artemis' Mommy[HERB][TULIP][TURTLE][TULIP][HERB]

 

[pepsiandjac]

The most likely reason that your Greek tortoise has doubled in size in less than a year is due to being awake and active the entire time. In the wild they would have bromated (hibernated) for almost that entire time and not have grown except when awake and active. It is common with tortoise raised in captivity. It is not necessarily a good thing, but to some degree unavoidable unless you either choose to brumate your tortoises during the time that they would be doing so in the wild. The alternative while they're active is to more closely monitor their diet in both content and quantity. Accelerated growth can be an issue and cause the nails, beak, carapace and plastron to grow more rapidly than the soft body parts. In severe cases it can also cause permanent growth deformities.
So growing a tortoise fast really isn't ideal.

Would it be ok if i remove the plants out of his enclosure,then when i feed him mix some iceburg lettuce in with it,sort of a tort diet

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Can I see a picture of your russian



The first pic is the russian

This is the greek the day i had him (he's the 1 on the right)

and this 1 was taken today

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The first pic is the russian

This is the greek the day i had him (he's the 1 on the right)

and this 1 was taken today

[/URL]

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[pepsiandjac]

Can I see a picture of your russian


Artemis' Mommy[HERB][TULIP][TURTLE][TULIP][HERB]

The first pic is of my Russian

[/URL]

This 1 are my Greeks the day i bought them(the big 1 is on the right)

[/URL][/url]

and this was taken today

[/URL][/url]

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The most likely reason that your Greek tortoise has doubled in size in less than a year is due to being awake and active the entire time. In the wild they would have bromated (hibernated) for almost that entire time and not have grown except when awake and active. It is common with tortoise raised in captivity. It is not necessarily a good thing, but to some degree unavoidable unless you either choose to brumate your tortoises during the time that they would be doing so in the wild. The alternative while they're active is to more closely monitor their diet in both content and quantity. Accelerated growth can be an issue and cause the nails, beak, carapace and plastron to grow more rapidly than the soft body parts. In severe cases it can also cause permanent growth deformities.
So growing a tortoise fast really isn't ideal.

Would it help if i removed the plants out of his enclosure,then when i feed him mix some iceburg lettuce in with his food.

 

[GBtortoises]

Are they eating the plants in the enclosure? That alone should not be an issue unless they're consuming large amounts of the plants weekly in addition to their regular diet. By feeding iceburg lettuce you'd simply be replacing nutritional food with a non-nutritional filler but still feeding the same volume of food. It's not the nutrition that should be reduced but instead possibly the volume. A lesser amount of nutritional food is much better than a large volume of non-nutritional food. It's not just diet that causes a tortoise to grow rapidly, but a combination of diet, excessive heat, low activity level, inadequate humidity level and some other more minor factors. It would help to know what you day, night & basking temperatures are; the humidity level day & night; general diet including any supplemental vitamins; drinking frequency and enclosure size. It's tough to determine much of anything without knowing the type of captive environment that a tortoise is being maintained in.

 

[pepsiandjac]

Basking temp is 95-98 cooler side 75-80,humidity is usually in the high 50s,night time temp is around 65,his indoor enclosure is 3'x4',but he's in his outside enclosure all day,which is about 20'x10' and i bring him in at night.He seems to be eating all day,i don't feed him so much now as what i give him is growing in his enclosure anyway,i soak him every day and give him some cucumber once or twice a week,he just seems to be wandering around eating all day. My other Greek is the same age and he's much smaller.

 

[GBtortoises]

The temperatures, humidity and enclosure all sound great. You can probably attribute the fast growth to not being brumated, which is common in captivity, as well as a simple "growth spurt", which is also common. Tortoises of the same age will often grow at very different rates even when kept under identical conditions. Quite often with Testudo graeca & hermanni subspecies (but not always), a male will grow more rapidly than a female of the same age. This is not always true, but it does happen that way frequently. You may want to monitor the smaller tortoises eating habits if it has to compete with the larger one for the same food. The smaller tortoise may have a difficult time getting all the food it needs with the larger tortoise present.
I'm curious-why the weekly cucumber? It has almost no nutritional value and is comprised mainly of water filled cells. There are many other vegetables that are more beneficial and better for them.

 

[AnnV]

Re: RE: tort growing to fast

The temperatures, humidity and enclosure all sound great. You can probably attribute the fast growth to not being brumated, which is common in captivity, as well as a simple "growth spurt", which is also common. Tortoises of the same age will often grow at very different rates even when kept under identical conditions. Quite often with Testudo graeca & hermanni subspecies (but not always), a male will grow more rapidly than a female of the same age. This is not always true, but it does happen that way frequently. You may want to monitor the smaller tortoises eating habits if it has to compete with the larger one for the same food. The smaller tortoise may have a difficult time getting all the food it needs with the larger tortoise present.
I'm curious-why the weekly cucumber? It has almost no nutritional value and is comprised mainly of water filled cells. There are many other vegetables that are more beneficial and better for them.

I cant answer for anyone else, but I feed cukes because of their cleansing and anti-inflammatory properties.

Ann from CT