Tortoise Pyramiding

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Whether you spell it Red-Footed, Red-Foot, or Redfoot, I’ll choose Redfoot for this entry.  These “juveniles” (torts older than 1 yr old, but less than reproduction maturity, 5-8 yrs approximately) are lovely 3.5 – 4 year old torts that came from a less than terrific home. Here’s how they came to live with us…

After deciding to take the leap to add Redfoots to our tort family of Russians, I began looking for those in search of a new home – my preference for shopping for torts first. I ventured onto the Facebook Marketplace and found two female Reds for sale. The pictures were enough for me to immediately contact the seller. These 4-5 inch+ tortoises were living together in a 20 gal tank with no lighting, heat, or moisture. Problems.

Here is a perfect example of poor husbandry leading to tortoise health issues including “Pyramiding”. After asking for additional pics, I spoke with the owner and advised of the issues I saw…underweight torts, dry skin, sunken watery eyes, pyramiding, etc. The next day we packed the kids and headed an hour away to save these torts. Upon seeing them in person, we were sick to our stomachs, dramatic I know, but it was hard to take. They were skinny, pyramiding was severe, and their legs were limp, really limp.

Some of the common known causes of tortoise shell “pyramiding” (or keratin depositing upward instead of outward in a 3 dimensional cone shape):

• Lack of proper UV lighting
• Lack of proper humidity / proper climate / proper environment
• Improper diet: too much protein (they were eating hard boiled eggs regularly; hmmm, in South America I’m confident Redfoots don’t find hard boiled chicken eggs in the wild, just sayin’)
• Not enough calcium
• Lack of exercise (two torts living in a 20 gal tank doesn’t allow for much walking around space)
• Over-eating

Does pyramiding effect the health of a tort? In short, it can. However, once there is pyramiding the damage is done.  If diet, exercise, and housing conditions are corrected in time, the tort should live a healthy life. In our case, these torts are so young that as they continue to grow, the scutes will flatten out underneath and spread out, fixing the new growth, but the “pyramids” will remain. With some tortoise species pyramiding is an expected growth pattern. With a small degree, pyramiding is acceptable in Redfoots. Shell pyramiding is continuously being researched for primary causes and prevention.

Pleased to report the torts are growing happy and healthy.

Happy tortoise keeping.