Hello, my little redfoot Magda is about 7 months old now and I noticed maybe a month or two ago that she (obvs don't actually know sex) has little dips in her shell around her hips. As in, her shell curves in where her hips are. She also has this slightly around her shoulders too.
I read in an older thread on here that this is a sign of MBD, and on a Facebook group that this means she is a male but I know 7 months is way too young for that. She doesn't appear to have any mobility issues or noticeable buckling of her rear back scutes. Are the hip dips a sign of MBD in a tort so young?
Magda's background: I got her at 1-1.5 months old (still had egg tooth). She seemed a bit dry (had some shrivelled up yolk sack on her belly which took a while to fully right itself) so she had daily 3x 10-30min warm soaks for the first couple of months, then twice daily for a couple of months, then once a day. This week I've gone back to twice daily for her though. Magda's shell was a little soft when she arrived so I've been adding calcium + D3 to most of her meals from the beginning and she firmed up. In the last month I stopped giving it daily in case she was getting too much D3 and mostly used straight calcium instead. However this week I noticed her top shell has a little bit of give when pressure is applied so I'm back to daily D3 + calcium.
She's been a picky eater from the start and will usually only eat weeds if I trick her into it, though over the last couple of months she's gone off greens overall and rarely eats them unless I chop them up finely with things she likes so she can't avoid them. Greens I've been giving her are kale, romaine, collard greens, dandelion, hawkbit, plantain, opuntia (she really tried to avoid the opuntia).
She loves fruit but I have to switch things up pretty regularly or she'll refuse them, though mango she almost never gets tired of. Her other fruits are strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, papaya, and zucchini if that counts as a fruit. This week I gave her banana for the first time as well.
I read a lot of people saying that they don't feed babies protein for the first 6-12 months and that protein at too young an age could stress the kidneys(or liver? Idr but one of them) so she rarely got boiled chicken or mushroom until a couple of months ago. When I started giving her a little protein mixed with other foods almost daily I noticed a big increase in her energy and activity and a voracity with her eating. Her protein consists of plain boiled chicken, mushroom, freeze dried crickets and grasshoppers, and the occasional freeze dried shrimp. Today I got mazuri and another kind of pellet food for her to try as well.
She has a decent sized house with a CHE, coco coir and coco chips as substrate, heaps of hiding spots, sphagnum moss, some live plants that she can't reach, and a water dish big enough for soaking in. Her temps are 83-90 and humidity 80%-99%. It's too cold for straight sunlight and she's never had a UVB light since she always buries herself so I didn't think she'd get much benefit (however I have just bought one and it arrives in a day or two).
Magda gained weight very slowly until the introduction of regular protein, she currently weighs about 93g and had been increasing until a couple of weeks ago when she suddenly went off her food and would take maybe a bite of food each day, and then every 4-5 days eat properly. I had taken Magda out to explore the living room floor under close supervision a couple of days prior to this so I thought this must have stressed her. To try to make up for it I've been soaking twice daily and feeding Magda in her enclosure instead. With the introduction of banana this week she's begun eating more consistently again. She also had 3 reptile electrolyte soaks this week, and I just got reptivite today which I'll add to her food regularly, and today I switched back to calcium with the D3. From what I can tell her poops are pretty consistent but I rarely see them because she almost never poops when I soak her; I'm sure she's having them as snacks in her enclosure. I did catch one poop a couple of days ago, the first half was very very firm (not and the second half was more normal-squishy.
That's probably way too much info but I figure it might help. My concern is that the hippy dippys and her top shell becoming a bit more pliable again are signs of MBD and if so, then I want to correct it asap. Athough if there seems to be something else amiss then please let me know.
I haven't been able to effectively catch the hip curves in photos because she's still such a small baby (they're very noticeable by feel), but I've attached some pics of her during recent soaks anyway.
I read in an older thread on here that this is a sign of MBD, and on a Facebook group that this means she is a male but I know 7 months is way too young for that. She doesn't appear to have any mobility issues or noticeable buckling of her rear back scutes. Are the hip dips a sign of MBD in a tort so young?
Magda's background: I got her at 1-1.5 months old (still had egg tooth). She seemed a bit dry (had some shrivelled up yolk sack on her belly which took a while to fully right itself) so she had daily 3x 10-30min warm soaks for the first couple of months, then twice daily for a couple of months, then once a day. This week I've gone back to twice daily for her though. Magda's shell was a little soft when she arrived so I've been adding calcium + D3 to most of her meals from the beginning and she firmed up. In the last month I stopped giving it daily in case she was getting too much D3 and mostly used straight calcium instead. However this week I noticed her top shell has a little bit of give when pressure is applied so I'm back to daily D3 + calcium.
She's been a picky eater from the start and will usually only eat weeds if I trick her into it, though over the last couple of months she's gone off greens overall and rarely eats them unless I chop them up finely with things she likes so she can't avoid them. Greens I've been giving her are kale, romaine, collard greens, dandelion, hawkbit, plantain, opuntia (she really tried to avoid the opuntia).
She loves fruit but I have to switch things up pretty regularly or she'll refuse them, though mango she almost never gets tired of. Her other fruits are strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, papaya, and zucchini if that counts as a fruit. This week I gave her banana for the first time as well.
I read a lot of people saying that they don't feed babies protein for the first 6-12 months and that protein at too young an age could stress the kidneys(or liver? Idr but one of them) so she rarely got boiled chicken or mushroom until a couple of months ago. When I started giving her a little protein mixed with other foods almost daily I noticed a big increase in her energy and activity and a voracity with her eating. Her protein consists of plain boiled chicken, mushroom, freeze dried crickets and grasshoppers, and the occasional freeze dried shrimp. Today I got mazuri and another kind of pellet food for her to try as well.
She has a decent sized house with a CHE, coco coir and coco chips as substrate, heaps of hiding spots, sphagnum moss, some live plants that she can't reach, and a water dish big enough for soaking in. Her temps are 83-90 and humidity 80%-99%. It's too cold for straight sunlight and she's never had a UVB light since she always buries herself so I didn't think she'd get much benefit (however I have just bought one and it arrives in a day or two).
Magda gained weight very slowly until the introduction of regular protein, she currently weighs about 93g and had been increasing until a couple of weeks ago when she suddenly went off her food and would take maybe a bite of food each day, and then every 4-5 days eat properly. I had taken Magda out to explore the living room floor under close supervision a couple of days prior to this so I thought this must have stressed her. To try to make up for it I've been soaking twice daily and feeding Magda in her enclosure instead. With the introduction of banana this week she's begun eating more consistently again. She also had 3 reptile electrolyte soaks this week, and I just got reptivite today which I'll add to her food regularly, and today I switched back to calcium with the D3. From what I can tell her poops are pretty consistent but I rarely see them because she almost never poops when I soak her; I'm sure she's having them as snacks in her enclosure. I did catch one poop a couple of days ago, the first half was very very firm (not and the second half was more normal-squishy.
That's probably way too much info but I figure it might help. My concern is that the hippy dippys and her top shell becoming a bit more pliable again are signs of MBD and if so, then I want to correct it asap. Athough if there seems to be something else amiss then please let me know.
I haven't been able to effectively catch the hip curves in photos because she's still such a small baby (they're very noticeable by feel), but I've attached some pics of her during recent soaks anyway.
