jtrux said:Here's mine...
You can see a waviness or a slight raise to the scutes esecially the upper most ones. I got him very young and the scutes were like that and i'm really not sure whether it was the beginning of pyramiding or just the way the scutes were from birth. Either way, you can see the smooth growth between the scutes now and I have a VERY humid enclosure for him.
It's pretty tedious if I do say so myself, two soaks a day, sunlight every day, 70%-100% humidity in enclosure depending on temp since I put humdifier in. It takes a little time but it appears that the results are worth it. I feel that over time the waviness of the scutes will hardly be noticeable. I'm also toying with the idea of converting a garden shed from Home Depot or Lowes into a giant closed chamber to allow high humidity for him up to 12" in length or so to ensure a smooth tortoise all the way to adulthood but we'll see how things progress.
I'm convinced that the high humidity is necessary to raise a smooth tort. I'll continue to provide that sort of environment as long as I feel it's needed.
How old is yours? Mine looks almost like that and it's almost 3 months. I got it at just under 4 weeks old. I'm hoping this growth will smooth out.
I'll see how high I can keep the humidity when the humidifier gets here, but it's never been under 50% during the day at any time that I'm aware of, and it's usually 80% when I check it in the morning. The area where the enclosure is will stay blocked off from the rest of the house so we'll see.
Also jtrux, how long have you had yours in that high humidity? I made a comparison pic with mine on the right, yours on the left:
One more thing I forgot to ask.
Can someone post a pic of what you'd consider a smooth 3 month old leopard at the same angle? I know some of you have a bunch of them and I'm just curious as to what they're supposed to look like at this age.