Hello from the UK

[Mattaru]

Hello folks, pleasure to be here.
About a fortnight ago, we took three tortoises off my grandmother when she could no longer care for them.

The first is my Sultana, Muffin. I think she's around 10-11 years old. I was worried when we first took her. I did some research beforehand, and found out she already had what looked to be quite a lot of pyramiding on her shell - could anyone elaborate on this? I hope it's not too serious - the shell itself is very sturdy and hard, although the white markings around the edges of the pyramids look rather bad.

I'm unsure right now whether this is a moderate or extreme. I've added some cuttlebone to her diet, and I'm following the online guides in regards to what she should eat (fruit once every 10 days, grazing from the garden and a variety of flowers, vegetables etc). The garden has also been adapted for her needs. Happily though, she's very energetic, and seems to have taken a liking to our back garden.

There are our other two tortoises - I'm not sure which species they are exactly, if someone could tell me that would be great. They are relatively younger than the Sultana - I'm guessing around 2-3 years old, they were a present for my grandmother's birthday. All three tortoises live in a heated annex, and are taken out everyday from the morning to the evening.

It's pretty exciting to have them, and since responsibility for them has fallen to me, I'll be doing my best to care for them.

Thanks for reading!
Matt

 

[jeffbens0n]

Welcome to the forum Matt. The pyramiding on your sulcata does not look to bad, and she appears to be healthy. I believe your other two tortoises are hermanns, but I am not an expert on them so someone else may correct me. I'm not sure if you keep the tortoises together or not as it looks in the pictures but if you do, I would suggest making separate areas for them to graze outside. Muffin is already much larger and sulcatas can often bully or hurt other tortoises. I might also suggest making some sort of shallow soaking dish in your yard if you don't have one already, something the tortoises can climb in and out of on their own to keep them hydrated. Again, welcome to the forum!

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi Matt:

Welcome to the forum!!

Actually in terms of "bad", the Hermann's pyramiding is worse than the sulcata's. And the white around the edges of the scutes is new growth. That's perfectly normal.

Most pyramiding is cosmetic and not harmful to the tortoise.

 

[coreyc]

Hello and welcome to the TFO

 

[Mattaru]

Thanks for the information, it's greatly appreciated. And relieving to hear it won't harm the tortoise; hope I can rectify whatever caused it in the first place (seems no one's too certain on that).

They've lived together fine for the past few weeks, my garden' large enough so they rarely bump heads; I keep an eye on the Hermanns when they're out anyway, since they're pretty tough to find afterwards!

Thanks again for the welcome!

 

[dmarcus]

Hello Matt and welcome to the forum.

 

[Tracy Gould]

Hi Matt welcome to the Forum I am from the Uk too I live in Pontefract were abouts are U ?

 

[Mattaru]

Thank you. I live on the edge of Slough, so you're about 2-3 hours away, which is a shame.
Looking forward to buying some stuff for them tomorrow; need to get to work on the dipping pool, and I'm going to try grow some dandelions . . . Which I've never tried before, so we'll see how things go!

 

[Tracy Gould]

Dandelions go mad in my garden lol be careful not to fed them to often though they love them but can cause stones, Shelby would eat them all day if i let him. every so often is ok as a varied diet,

 

[Mattaru]

Ahahaha, really? I was having doubts as to whether they'd come up at all! Would love to see Shelby, do you have a thread link?

 

[Tracy Gould]

Ahahaha, really? I was having doubts as to whether they'd come up at all! Would love to see Shelby, do you have a thread link?

This was taken a few months ago

http://www.tortoiseforum.org/Thread-New-Pics#axzz1LcUPHH00

 

[ALDABRAMAN]

Welcome.

 

[bikerchicspain]

Welcome to TFO