Update on Phil and Shell Growth Question

MarginatedMooney

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Joined
Jan 25, 2021
Messages
150
Location (City and/or State)
Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina USA
Hi all,
From what I can tell, Phil is a happy, healthy little tortoise. He's just over 4 months old now and has grown from 3.8cm(~1.5in) and 14g to 5.7cm(~2.25in) and 38g during that span of time! A lot of credit goes to this forum for helping me out with this little guy.

I've been trying to keep his humidity up the best I can so he can have smooth shell growth, ~60% beneath his heat lamp. Regardless, some of his shell growth has started to look a bit odd to me, but I'm not an expert so I figured I would ask about it. I've added some pictures because he's so darned cute but also to show his shell growth. It looks like some of the older growth on some scutes is slightly elevated over the new growth. Is this normal or is this the start of pyramiding?
 

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MarginatedMooney

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Joined
Jan 25, 2021
Messages
150
Location (City and/or State)
Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina USA
I don't have any pictures of his enclosure offhand but I can take some when I can. Phil has grown a bit more since this post. I'll have to post some more pictures of him too.

For now, he's living in this 37" x 24.5" wooden tortoise house pictured below. Unfortunately, we bought it before we knew he should be in an enclosed chamber. I quickly realized the open top wasn't going to cut it because I was struggling to keep the humidity up. I put plexiglass on top of the screen and cut holes in the plexi for the lights.
I have a 65watt incandescent flood bulb on a 12-hour timer, a 100watt CHE on a thermostat set to 70F for night heat, and a ZooMed 24" T5 fixture + 10.0 fluorescent tube for UVB that is on 3 hours a day from noon to 3PM.
He also gets some outside time 1-2 days a week for an hour at a time when the weather is nice. I give him a daily soak for 20 minutes.

Temps and humidity:
Basking temp: 95-100F (hotter, like 105-110 when it's 90+ degrees outside. If I run the AC, it seems to help bring it back to ~100.)
Ambient: 82-85F
Cool side: 75-77F
Nighttime: 68-70F
Humidity: 60% directly beneath the basking lamp, ~80-90+% elsewhere depending on location. High 80s to 99% at night.

Screenshot_20210628-231140_Amazon Shopping.jpg
 

MarginatedMooney

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 25, 2021
Messages
150
Location (City and/or State)
Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina USA
Here are some new pictures of Phil and some of his enclosure.
 

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