Weight Gain question for rescue

[mushmouth26]

I bought a leopard at the end of Oct and was given a rescue sulcata along with it. They only had the sulcata for 4 months and they were told it was 4 years old when they got it. She/he weighed 261 grams the day I got it. Pretty bad pyramiding as well. As of yesterday its up to 521 grams. Its basically double its weight a little over a month and a half. Should I have any concerns with its speed of weight gain or is just a matter of it being mal nourished and now its body is playing catch up? Will it plateau? Or am I going to have a huge tortoise in a short time?

 

[Yvonne G]

Are you feeding grasses and weeds? Plenty of natural fiber. He's probably just catching up. If you're really pushing the Mazuri, I wouldn't do that. I'd just offer Mazuri a couple times a week.

Have you seen this thread? Middle picture compared to first picture shows just over one year's growth:

http://www.tortoiseforum.org/thread-84782.html

 

[mushmouth26]

Diet consist of Kale, collards, clovers, dandilion leaves, zuccini and whatever else it picks at in the yard on days it gets out. Also with a couple of mazuri pellets each day. Like literately 2 pellets a day.. So i can cut that back if needed. Shell growth looks good though..
I also typically wet the leaves and cover in ground up orchid or timothy grass. I havent been able to get them to eat just grass.. I have been throwing clumps of grass in a old electric coffee been grinder to make the grass fine. When I received them they had a couple of pieces of romain in the box so Im guessing this was there main diet. They also had very runny stool. So not taken care of very well.

 

[sibi]

I think you're doing fine with his diet. The tiny amount of mazuri you're feeding him isn't gonna make him grow so fast that he'll pyramid terribly. You're doing a great job!

 

[Laura]

was he dehydrated as well? that could account for a lot of the weight gain.. good hydration..

 

[mushmouth26]

Im sure he/she was dehydrated.. Both the leopard and the sulcata seem to have been kept pretty dry.. So Im sure there is some water weight involved but visually the tortoise has grown significantly and you can see all new growth lines around the scutes.