Pyramiding?

Joined
Mar 20, 2020
Messages
89
Location (City and/or State)
Denver, Colorado
Hey guys!

I was looking at noodles the other day and I began to worry that he's getting pyramid. I'm really worried. I added some photos that are recent, hopefully you can see his shell enough. For reference, he is 4 months old and his shell is about 2 1/2 in. long. He gets soaked everyday.

Thanks :D
Gracey and Noodles
 

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Last edited:

Tom

The Dog Trainer
10 Year Member!
Platinum Tortoise Club
Joined
Jan 9, 2010
Messages
63,269
Location (City and/or State)
Southern California
Hey guys!

I was looking at noodles the other day and I began to worry that he's getting pyramid. I'm really worried. I added some photos that are recent, hopefully you can see his shell enough. For reference, he is 4 months old and his shell is about 2 1/2 in. long. He gets soaked everyday.

Thanks :D
Gracey and Noodles
We need a profile pic, taken from the side, to assess pyramiding.

How are you housing him? What type of heating and lighting? What is the ambient humidity in the enclosure? How often do you soak him? Is the substrate damp? Is there a humid hide?
 
Joined
Mar 20, 2020
Messages
89
Location (City and/or State)
Denver, Colorado
We need a profile pic, taken from the side, to assess pyramiding.

How are you housing him? What type of heating and lighting? What is the ambient humidity in the enclosure? How often do you soak him? Is the substrate damp? Is there a humid hide?
I house him in a tortoise house, and I have both a heating lamp and a t5 HO zoomed UVB light. I use a ceramic heater that's attached to a thermostat to keep the basking temp at 93 F, and I try remoisten the substrate about every 2-3 days while misting it everyday. Noodles has two moist hides, and he gets soaked every day for 15-20 minutes. I don't have any side profile pictures yet, but I can post those when I get back to Noodles. I also feed him about a handful of mixed greens everyday.
 

Tom

The Dog Trainer
10 Year Member!
Platinum Tortoise Club
Joined
Jan 9, 2010
Messages
63,269
Location (City and/or State)
Southern California
I house him in a tortoise house, and I have both a heating lamp and a t5 HO zoomed UVB light. I use a ceramic heater that's attached to a thermostat to keep the basking temp at 93 F, and I try remoisten the substrate about every 2-3 days while misting it everyday. Noodles has two moist hides, and he gets soaked every day for 15-20 minutes. I don't have any side profile pictures yet, but I can post those when I get back to Noodles. I also feed him about a handful of mixed greens everyday.
Tortoise houses are not suitable for any species or size tortoise. You can't maintain the correct conditions with an open top and all the heat needed to keep temps up will cause the pyramiding you are concerned about.

CHEs are for maintaining ambient temps, not for basking. A basking lamp needs to emit heat AND light.

Your routine sounds pretty good! :)

There are four elements to heating and lighting:
  1. Basking bulb. I use 65 watt incandescent floods from the hardware store. Some people will need bigger, or smaller wattage bulbs. Let your thermometer be your guide. I run them on a timer for about 12 hours and adjust the height to get the correct basking temp under them. I also like to use a flat rock of some sort directly under the bulb.
  2. Ambient heat maintenance. I use ceramic heating elements or radiant heat panels set on thermostats to maintain ambient above 80 degrees day and night for tropical species. You'd only need day heat for a temperate species like Testudo or DT.
  3. Light. I use LEDs for this purpose. Something in the 5000-6500K color range will look the best. Most bulbs at the store are in the 2500K range and they look yellowish. Strip or screw-in bulb types are both fine.
  4. UV. If you can get your tortoise outside for an hour 2 or 3 times a week, you won't need indoor UV. If you want it anyway, get one of the newer HO type fluorescent tubes. Which type will depend on mounting height. 5.0 bulbs make almost no UV. You need a meter to check this: https://www.solarmeter.com/model65.html
 
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