Accelerated Scute growth?

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hazel57

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I have a young three-toed box turtle whom is about 4 years old. I was gone for two months this summer and I had a friend of mine take care of him. When I got him back he was HUGE, like wayyyy bigger than he had been before. Which was weird to me because I have had him for 3 years and he has only grown slowly the whole time. Now it looks as if at the end of the scutes the growth was much too accelerated. I was curious if anyone knows why this happened and if there is anything I can do to fix it? Any help would be greatly appreciated!!
 

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CourtneyG

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Lets hope your friend did not replace your little guy. But I have no clue as to what has caused this or what to do about it.
 

Yvonne G

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Wow...she really did have a giant jump in growth. It's ok...you just have to be sure to offer the correct amount of moisture, sunshine and calcium and she'll continue to grow smoothly.
 

lkwagner

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My sulcata started off slow but once she got going she grew soooo fast! But are you positive this is your tortoise? lol
 

mike taylor

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Your friend may have over fed it . Looks like the humidity was off. But hay it's alive and bigger so your friend did better than most tort.sitters. I've herd horror stories about people tort. sitting and bad things happening.

Sent from my C771 using TortForum mobile app
 

lisa127

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I have a boxie that is almost 26 months old. He/she at last measurement was 5.25 inches in SCL and at last weight in 455 grams. Huge. But his/her growth is all very smooth, not like the pic you posted.
 

yagyujubei

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This topic just seems odd to me. You have had this turtle for three years, and he hasn't grown. Your friend has had it for a couple of months, and it grows, yet you seem to complain. The lack of growth, is the real issue, not the new . To me, it shows signs of not having had enough protein in it's diet - hence the lack of growth. What have you been feeding since you had him? What did your friend feed? My guess is that he finally got the protein he so desperately needed. He's still very small for his age, about the size of a two year old.
 

ascott

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There is nothing wrong with slow growth if the diet is adequate....and the sitter likely had fun offering food up and so may have been over indulging your buddy...lol

He does look good...was this pic taken while he was sleeping? I don't know if it is just the pic or my old lady eyes, are his eyes a little swollen? Also curious...what is that white stuff in the soil?
 

hazel57

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To answer some questions. Yes he has grown over the time I have had him, but never so dramatic with the weird stretched out look at the end of the scutes. I offer him plenty of protein, I feed him slugs, snails, eggs, fish, and clams in addition to a mixture of veggies and fruit. I feed him every other day and I make sure his enclosure is moist and has plenty of UVA/UVB.

@ yagyjubei: how can you tell his actual size by looking at the picture? There are no references to show the exact measurement.

@ yvonne g: should I up the amount of calcium? the edge where the carapace and plastron meet seem to be thick and slightly tipped up. The last time I had him to the vet, she said when the shell starts doing that it means that he is getting too much protein.

Thanks for all your responses


@ ascott: no his eyes are not swollen, he just has his head tucked up in his shell part way. The white stuff is just something that came in the soil from the organic garden place. The white leafy thing in the back left corner is a type of lichen that grows all over out here.
 

yagyujubei

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@ yagyjubei: how can you tell his actual size by looking at the picture? There are no references to show the exact measurement

It's easy to see from your picture. The original natal scutes are there. I would guess it's about 2 1/2" long, not more than 3". Why have you determined feeding every other day is a good idea? They get half of what I feed mine right off the bat. This should be a GROWING baby. Now. because of the uneven growth, you're going to have a difficult time getting him to grow normally I think. If he were mine, I would feed daily, mostly animal protein and fruit, as much as he wants and plenty of sun and water.
 

diamondbp

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It looks like your friend did you a favor because the new growth coming in is much smoother than the previous growth. So I would duplicate the conditions your friend had it in because its obviously working better for the turtle. NO offense to you but that turtle is remarkably small for being so old. He should at LEAST be twice that size by now. At 3 years old mine are rougly 3-5 inches depending on the sub species and sex.
 
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