Metabolic Bone Disease

[Yvonne G]

I got my two Aldabran tortoises as hatchlings in 2000. One of them was slightly bigger than the other and as he grew, he developed a "different" or funny-looking shape. I wasn't wise enough, at that time, to recognize that his funny shape was due to metabolic bone disease. I'm posting a picture of a picture of him that I recently found in my desk of when he was about a year old. You can plainly see the sloping carapace over the hips. This is a very good indicator of MBD. I only wish I knew enough at that time so I could have corrected it as it was happening. I'm having a heck of a time getting enough calcium into him now, at appx. 150lbs.

 

[Tortoise]

I got my two Aldabran tortoises as hatchlings in 2000. One of them was slightly bigger than the other and as he grew, he developed a "different" or funny-looking shape. I wasn't wise enough, at that time, to recognize that his funny shape was due to metabolic bone disease. I'm posting a picture of a picture of him that I recently found in my desk of when he was about a year old. You can plainly see the sloping carapace over the hips. This is a very good indicator of MBD. I only wish I knew enough at that time so I could have corrected it as it was happening. I'm having a heck of a time getting enough calcium into him now, at appx. 150lbs.

It is great you are doing the best you can for him, how do you know how much calcium to give him and that is may not be enough?
I heavily dose my torts food with calcium and they eat it but as for a give ideal amount I just don't know.

I tried shaving up an old cuttle bone that the Red foots had lost interest in and they ate quite a bit of it , I used a paring knife and made big slivers and left it in a dish to see if they would eat any-it is nearly gone.

 

[Yvonne G]

I use human calcium tablets. The bottle says two 500mg tablets once a day and I'm giving the tortoise three 500mg tablets once a day.

 

[Zamric]

WOW! thats ALOT of calcium! with WalkingRock over 70 LBS, how much calcium should he be getting.

 

[Yvonne G]

I don't pretend to know those types of things. My vet is the one who told me what to give him.

 

[Madkins007]

There is a formula you can use- 1.3 to 8mg of calcium per kilocalorie (what we usually call a 'Calorie') of food.

This page has a chart that may help: http://tortoiselibrary.com/nutguide.html