Is my greek tortoise pyramiding?

[felixr]

Hi All,

Woke up this morning and I noticed that my tortoise, Speedy, might be pyramiding. After an extensive google search I am still none the wiser. I feed him living plants, his cage has two parts, one full of sand and rocks and the other full of plants.

Although I provide a lot of different plants, he just eats the living salad. He goes nuts for that stuff.

Hopefully his growth his normal enough, but I would like to double check.

Cheers

Felix

 

[colatoise]

How often are you soaking them? What are your temps? What are your light sources?

 

[wellington]

He doesn't look bad to me. However, I would get rid of the sand, it can cause impaction, or mix it with plain dirt or coconut coir. More other then sand. As already asked, what are temps, humidity, soakings, etc?

 

[felixr]

He has a waterhole, which he soaks in his own time. as for temps and humidity, i'm not really sure. I imagine the humidity is quite low, temperature under the lamp is fairly warm, enough so that after a few hours of sunbathing he is warm to the touch. The rest of his area is room temperature so around 20 C.

I also let him out once or twice a day for an hour or so for a general wander around/explore.

 

[colatoise]

I agree to get rid of the sand. I use cypress mulch which holds humidity well. I also soak mine in very shallow warm water for about 30 minutes a day. Only covering the bottom of the shell. You do need to know your temps. I keep mine 80 in the cool side and 95 in basking area. At night I don't let it get below 65. Search Greek tortoise care guide on the forum and you'll get way more info. Hope this helps!

 

[felixr]

Are you meant to keep greek tortoises humid? I thought they liked it dry, like how it is in Morocco, Turkey etc.

 

[sibi]

If greek torts are like sulcatas, then you ought to read Wellington's threads on humidity levels and temps. It appears that your tort is getting what it needs for temps (although, it would be better if you told us what they are), but I'm concerned about not enough humidity. One thing I've learned at this forum is not to assume that torts like it dry because of where they are originally from. We can't simulate what they actually do in the wild. For instance, it may be dry where they are from, but how do you know that they don't instinctively find a way to shield themselves from the dryness somehow? Anyhow, giving you a bump so that hopefully someone can inform you better.

 

[biochemnerd808]

I have found it useful to have a dry zone (around and near the basking area), and then to provide a humid burrow, filled with moistened coconut coir. That way when my torts want to burrow in moist substrate, they have the option. Tort burrows in the wild often have a humidity level of 80%+. I think there are several very useful threads on this subject on this forum.

If greek torts are like sulcatas, then you ought to read Wellington's threads on humidity levels and temps. It appears that your tort is getting what it needs for temps (although, it would be better if you told us what they are), but I'm concerned about not enough humidity. One thing I've learned at this forum is not to assume that torts like it dry because of where they are originally from. We can't simulate what they actually do in the wild. For instance, it may be dry where they are from, but how do you know that they don't instinctively find a way to shield themselves from the dryness somehow? Anyhow, giving you a bump so that hopefully someone can inform you better.

 

[colatoise]

I'm going to try and up the humidity in the hide. Buddha tends to sleep wherever she wants, but I recently had to move her to an indoor winter enclosure because of the weather. It is smaller, but having more regulated temps have improved her activeness. So I'll have to get my humidity up now. Thanks for the info.