Newbie Question. What is pyramiding? Thank you in advance.

Bridget

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What does the term pyramiding mean? I'm sorry. I need to learn. Thank you.
 
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russian/sulcata/tortoise

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there is a lot more bad results for a tort being kept dry like the tort being stunted or hatchling failure syndrome. torts should always have a source of water at all times, have humidity in there enclosure and have regular soaks.
 

Tidgy's Dad

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In the past, and indeed now on many internet pages, pyramiding has been blamed on too much protein, too much food, a low fibre diet, not enough exercise and the lack of calcium taken in or able to be absorbed because of shortage of D3. However, current experiments seem to strongly indicate that humidity is the primary factor, as even desert species seem to be born in the rainy season and spend much of their time in humid burrows. Hence leopards and sulcatas are particularly prone to pyramiding as people incorrectly keep them in dry conditions.
It is, of course , also essential to get the other factors right to have a healthy tortoise, but at this stage, and further research will only add to our knowledge, humidity seems to be the primary factor.
 

Gillian M

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russian/sulcata/tortoise

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Goodness what a difference! Only a question: if lack of humidity causes pyramiding then how did torts manage to live in deserts for so long, particularly in the past? Or did they have pyramiding that nobody knew about?
sulcatas are grassland species that spend 90% of there lives underground in moist burrows.
 

Gillian M

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What does the term pyramiding mean? I'm sorry. I need to learn. Thank you.
A warm welcome to the forum!

As Russian/Sulcata/Tortoise said: "You needn't apologize." We all ask questions so as to learn. And I have a feeling that torts still not common pets, unlike cats, dogs, even birds.
 

CEvans

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This helped me as well as I adopted mine and he has some mild pyramiding. I was told he was fed dog food by the first owner and that the protein did this. So now I know it was humidity. I have a plastic play pool cut out on one side for Buzz to go into when he comes out of his mid day hiddy hole.
 
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