Growth.

[firefly]

Hi all... I am a little worried about my Graeca Ibera tort as I have had him several years now and he does not seem to have grown more than around an inch... is this normal? His diet consists of weeds and garden plants grown by myself as recommended from another tort forum. I think he is around three years old although I believe he was imported as the supplier I got him from sold him to me under the belief that he was an African Leopard(!) and so I am not certain of his exact age.

Any advice you can give me would be much appreciated! I've included a pic of him, (he is 2.5 inches long).

 

[egyptiandan]

RE: Growth...

Hi and welcome to the forum

Your Greek tortoise isn't growing to badly. He/she is starting to pyramid a little bit. Are you giving any calcium supplements?

You don't though have a Testudo graeca ibera. You have a Tunisian greek tortoise, T.g.nabeulensis. So he did come from Africa (North Africa to be exact ) They don't get anywhere near as big as T.g.ibera, with males averaging 4 to 5 inches and females 5 to 7 inches.
They need to be kept warmer than T.g.ibera and they don't hibernate.
He/she was definately imported and not legally. He/she should have had an article 10 from DEFRA when sold to you.

Danny

 

[firefly]

RE: Growth...

Hi and welcome to the forum

Your Greek tortoise isn't growing to badly. He/she is starting to pyramid a little bit. Are you giving any calcium supplements?

You don't though have a Testudo graeca ibera. You have a Tunisian greek tortoise, T.g.nabeulensis. So he did come from Africa (North Africa to be exact ) They don't get anywhere near as big as T.g.ibera, with males averaging 4 to 5 inches and females 5 to 7 inches.
They need to be kept warmer than T.g.ibera and they don't hibernate.
He/she was definately imported and not legally. He/she should have had an article 10 from DEFRA when sold to you.

Danny

Goodness me! I posted a photo of him on another forum and the 'expert' who looked at him felt sure he was an ibera. I am so pleased to hear his growth is normal, but am aware of his pyramid problem - does this mean he needs more calcium? He currently has a dish of limestone flour and he also has a cuttlefish bone in his enclosure, although he seems to pretty much ignore that and use it as a basking rock!

He did not get sold to me with an article from DEFRA - unfortunately when I purchased him I wasn't too knowledgeable at all about tortoises and merely wanted to rescue him from possible bad ownership! (it was a pretty awful pet shop, they showed me a photo of his 'family').

With regard to his temperature, what sort of temp should I be aiming for? He is in an open top table at the moment, but spends most of his time out of this wandering freely in my flat. Unfortunately I do not have a garden at the moment but I do grow fresh weeds for his diet.

Any advice you can give me on these other points would be very much appreciated - sorry to ask so much at once!

 

[egyptiandan]

RE: Growth...

It sounds like he has plenty of calcium, but sounds like he isn't getting enough vitamin D3. Try getting some Nutrabol and sprinkling that on his food at every feeding.
The next thing would be to not let him roam on the floor. Floors are much to cold and drafty for your tortoise. Temperatures should be 34C under the basking lamp, 30C at the warm end, 22c for the cool end and 22C for night time temperatures.

Danny

 

[firefly]

RE: Growth...

It sounds like he has plenty of calcium, but sounds like he isn't getting enough vitamin D3. Try getting some Nutrabol and sprinkling that on his food at ever feeding.
The next thing would be to not let him roam on the floor. Floors are much to cold and drafty for your tortoise. Temperatures should be 34C under the basking lamp, 30C at the warm end, 22c for the cool end and 22C for night time temperatures.

Danny

He has had nutrabol in the past and refused to eat his dinner - but I will try him on it again to try and rectify this pyramid problem. Thank you so much for your advice. I will try to keep the temperatures more controlled for him too from now on.

 

[Yvonne G]

RE: Growth...

Whenever you find a picky eater that won't eat when you put supplements on their food, you just start out with a very teeny tiny bit...just a pinch. Then you can gradually (GRADUALLY) increase the amount over a period of time. But its not a fact in this case that more is better. Less is better. Maybe you were trying to give him too much.

Yvonne