Pyramiding and supplements

KiraBeckham

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@ZEROPILOT you've helped me before with my juvenile Redfoot in Colorado. Overall she's doing well now
I'm still waiting for her indoor enclosed chamber enclosure so humidity isn't perfect but close. I soak her, she has a tray, and I mist her daily. We got her outdoor enclosure built and are working on getting the plants growing by seed so that we can have her outdoors more. We've noticed she's constantly trying to eat any poop, dirt, mushroom, even pebbles inher vicinity. I read that Minerall supplement can help but finding she won't eat her foot if Ib sprinkle it on. I'm giving her an assortment of grocery greens and working in dandelion, thistle and soon we'll have hibiscus us too (growing it). She gets mushrooms, veggies and fruit too. I give her an earth wirm occasionally, she loves them.

My questions are: She is starting to pyramid more. Should I keep giving her Minerall supplement or could that be making pyramiding worse? Can her UV light cause pyramiding to worsen? Do your Redfoots eat dirt/poop if they get access? I want to keep her I. The outdoor enclosure but trying to get the plants established first so letting her explore the yard for exercise. Also, when you plant an outdoor enclosure do you ever buy nursery plants or only grow your own?

Thanks so much!
 

ZEROPILOT

REDFOOT WRANGLER
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Please describe or photograph your lighting. Pyramiding is only caused by lack of humidity. Many types of lights can work with an open topped enclosure to dry out the tortoises carapace. Anything except a strip florescent and a small, low wattage CHE or low wattage incandescent bulb can be too desicating.
Misting will be pretty futile. As you are already seeing.
Also, use very little calcium supplement. Just a tiny pinch.
And I'd also start providing cuttlebone in the enclosure. It seems to me that your tort is seeking minerals that that store bought diet isn't providing.
You can provide other shade sources outside if the weather is warm. Flowerpots, pipes, even something like a few simple boxes.
Since my RF all live outdoors they DO have access to dirt, rocks. You name it. But a correct diet and real sunlight will help greatly with correct nutrition. And will stop that behavior almost entirely.
As long as she is warm enough for completion of digestion. At least 80°. You can bump up the Summer feeding to a full 50% fruit. And higher levels of protein to include some meat.
 
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jsheffield

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I feed mazuri a few times a week but in really small quantities, and as a supplement.

I soak a few of the nuggets in 2-3 times their volume in warm water, so that once it's absorbed, the result is a paste about the consistency of shampoo.

I toss the greens my torts are eating for the day in the goo, like a salad dressing, and it coats the leaves... torts like the taste of mazuri and will generally not ignore it when mixed in their food like this.

I also toss in whole eggshells for my Redfoot, who loves crunching them and probably gets some calcium as the shell fragments move through their digestive tracts.

Jamie
 
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