Couple quick/random questions!

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DocNezzy

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My 2 new leos were poorly taken care of. One has a pretty soft shell. Should I be giving it more calcium/D3 powder? Will they recover if I just start taking care of them correctly? How often should I use Ca/D3? How often vitamin supplement? I also have no idea what age they are. They are both 26.7g, 46mm long, and 43mm wide. Thanks!
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moswen

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Calcium powder is tricky, give too much and it can inhibit absorption of other items for your tort. I put all their food in a plastic shoe box and put enough calcium powder in there to make a fine coating on everything when I shake it up, so they get calcium every time they eat. Also leave a cuttlebone in their enclosure so they can munch whenever they feel a need for it.

It's hard to say if they'll live or not, some on here have died and some have pulled through. Something else I do is mix calcium powder or a piece of cuttlebone in with the soil if you're growing food for them, which is a good idea if you're not. Calcium gets absorbed thru the roots and into the leaves that way. Best of luck!!!
 
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Maggie Cummings

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I recently had a hatchling who's plastron was soft and I could actually see fluid moving underneath it. So I started sprinkling calcium powder over it's food at both feedings every day. I was pretty sure it was going to die. Well, now it is 14 months old, hard as a rock and I can't see thru it's plastron. It has doubled in size and I am just pleased as heck. I'm using calcium powder without D3. I turn on it's UVB light for about 2 hours a day and use an incandescent light the rest of the time. I am feeding it Spring Mix with all kinds of dark greens added to it. I also give it some softened squash as a treat in the evening.
I don't believe in giving up on any animal and I have been pretty successful. I have always believed that any excess calcium is excreted by the kidneys.
 

Az tortoise compound

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I would follow Maggie's lead here. Be sure to include natural sunlight every single minute you can (weather permitting) and no D3.
 

Neal

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I wouldn't worry about the soft shell so much unless you see a difference in behavior and activity level with that tortoise. They are still young, so you have a good opportunity to get them on the right track with minimal, if any, permanent health issues. I have two sub adult leopards that I got as hatchlings. They of course received the exact same care from me, one had a hard shell from the get go, the other had a soft shell for about a year, so I think how quickly a tortoises shell firms up varies from tortoise to tortoise.

There is some debate on how much calcium and supplementation should be used and whether D3 should be included. Tom says it best, I can't recall exactly how he says it, but something like: the frequency of supplementation should be somewhere between never to multiple times a day. It can be quite confusing so I would recommend reading over some of the threads about this topic by searching for "calcium" (which will bring up 76 pages of posts), asking for others opinions, then you can make a more confident decision about how much and how frequently you want to supplement.

I personally do not offer any type of supplement with my adults, and very rarely with my hatchlings (once a week or every other week). My tortoises get a varied diet of grass, weeds, and other plants that I grow in my backyard along with lots of natural sunlight as has been suggested. All of my tortoises are rock solid, healthy, super active, and even breeding so not supplementing is working for me.

You have some handsome looking leos there, keep us updated on their progress and be sure to include pictures!
 

DocNezzy

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I have a UVB light on in their pen everyday. They spend most of their time sleeping in their hide, out of the light, but do come out to eat and run around. They go outside most days for an hour or two. So, I shouldn't be supplementing D3? The soft one also seems to miss a lot when he is trying to eat, and it doesn't eat very fast. It's as if he doesn't have any depth perception. The one that is hard is way more aggressive when it eats. I'm worried that the soft one won't make it, but I'm going to do whatever I can to try to help it pull through. Have no worries about the other one. It seems healthy and content. Thanks all for your replies. Keep them coming!
 

Yvonne G

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It might help your soft baby if you feed him in another spot, away from Gobbler. Then, every time you walk by the habitat, take Softie out and put him by the food. I would sprinkle just a tiny bit of calcium powder over his food every meal. Not too much. Some tortoises won't eat if you put too much. And if he has a UVB light and gets some sunshine, don't use the D3. Like was said in a previous post, I put the wet greens in a plastic tub with a lid, take a pinch of calcium powder and liquid vitamins and shake it up to coat all the greens.
 

tortoisenerd

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I agree with Maggie (although she has much much more experience!) in that just the pure calcium daily, no D3, is a good idea, and that unless you are giving chunks of the calcium (so much falls off the food anyways), any extra will be peed out (calcium is water soluble, not fat soluble like D3, and it would take a lot to interfere with absorption of other minerals, although the definition of a lot of debatable). As much real sun as you can give the tort is best, although a good MVB like Mega Ray or T-Rex is a secondary choice. Just keep an eye that it doesn't ever get any softer, only harder. If you think the tort is in dire shape, you might consider a liquid calcium, but as long as the tort is still active and eating and such, only a bit soft for the age, then I'd just stick with this plan. Some people like to do soaks in bird vitamins or baby food like squash or carrots. Not sure how bad we're talking about of shell softness so I though I'd mention it.
 
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