The Tortoise Table

I've had my 2 year old horsfield for about 3 weeks and noticed that his shell is starting to pyramid. I'm new to tortoise keeping and wanted to check that giving him a bath every day is the right thing to do. Any advice would be appreciated please.

Hi, and welcome to The Tortoise Table,

First of all, congratulations on getting your Horsfield (what's his name by the way?). The subject of pyramiding is one that is much discussed, and there are various causes.

Giving him a bath every day (or every other day) is absolutely right -- especially with a young tortoise, as they can dehydrate quickly under lights indoors. What sort of substrate are you using? In general, Horsfields prefer a dryish substrate and atmosphere, but because indoor lights can produce overly dry conditions, we recommend that you use a soil and sand based substrate and that you spray it lightly every couple of days to increase the humidity slightly.

Some of the main causes of pyramiding are too much protein in the diet, or too much food in general in the diet. Horsfields in particular are prone to pyramiding in captivity because we feed them too much good food, or too much food that is higher in protein (they need a diet that is high in fibre and low in protein). In the wild, Horsfield tend to live in areas where they have long, cold winters (during which they hibernate), and long hot summers (during which the aestivate, which is a bit like hibernating, but in the heat). Field studies have found that in the wild they are actually only awake for about three months a year, and during that time they are not even eating all the time. They are therefore sort of programmed to 'eat for England' in the time left to them, and In captivity, of course we provide them with lovely meals every day and they overeat.

So the thing with most tortoises -- and especially with Horsfields -- is to monitor their diet. A rough guideline can be all they can eat in 15 or 20 minutes, once a day, or enough leaves, flowers, etc. to make a little blanket to cover their shell, once a day. However, the best way to monitor their growth is to keep a chart of weights, and you should aim for him to gain no more -- on average -- than 1g - 3g per month in weight (some months he might gain more and some less, but that is what to aim for).

Also, pyramiding can be caused by too much protein in the diet. Most commercial tortoise foods traditionally have too much protein in them, although there are some better foods now, and if you are using a commercial diet we can recommend the best ones. Good fresh weeds and flowers are best for them (but even some plants -- like legumes -- are too high in protein). I would also avoid what we call 'soft' foods like lettuce, which don't have a lot of nourishment and go through their systems too quickly (tortoises are designed to digest food slowly).

Calcium and vitamin D3 are also really important. Outdoors the sun is the best source of UVB and indoors a good UVB light is essential. The UVB reacts with the skin of the tortoise to produce vitamin D3, and this enables the tortoise to absorb and utilise the calcium in its diet to produce strong bones and shell (and if you think about it they are mainly bone and shell!).

Can you tell us how you are keeping him (in an open-topped table or an enclosed glass and wood vivarium; on what substrate, what sort of lights you have and what his diet is)? I'm really sorry to ask so many questions, but if you get everything right at the beginning then it's easier going from then on.

In case you don't have one, here is a link to a care sheet for Horsfields: https://www.tortoise-protection-group.o ... 014New.pdf

And here is an article on pyramiding in tortoises (it's a bit old, but much of the information is still relevant): https://www.tortoisetrust.org/articles/pyramiding.html

I hope this long email hasn't put you off, but I wanted to give you as much information as possible.

Nina

Hi Nina
Thank you so much for your reply. He's called Zippy He's being kept in an open top table that we have covered with a wire lid to protect him from other pets. It's an L shape table with the heat/uvb light in the corner and a covered hide at the other end. He's on mostly coir with some arcadia earth mix mixed in on top. He's got a cuttle fish and chalk blocks, a large low water dish that he doesn't appear to use, some tortoise friendly plants and bark for climbing.

The temperature is 30c under his lamp and a little higher if he climbs the bark. The cooler end seems to be around 17 to 18 and I think that's why he doesn't use it much at the moment. I did consider getting a ceramic heat emitter?

So far he's been eating lambs lettuce, some dandelion leaves and a small amount of clover. Plus the odd nibble of his opuntia. We have just planted some seeds so that we can grow him a better variety of food. I've been sprinkling his food with calcium powder a couple of times a week.

He's only active for a short period of time each day but we weren't sure if was due to the set up or him still setling in? He only seems to poo when we give him a bath so once a day at the moment. I can send photos if you need them but any advice is very much appreciated

Thanks

Aww, Zippy is a lovely name.

It sounds to me like your set-up is a good one. I personally think that L-shaped tables are nice because they're space efficient, but also tortoises get bored if they can see from one end of the table to the other without obstruction, and an L shape means there is more to explore round the corner.

It's good you've got the cuttlefish and the chalk in the table, but in my experience smaller tortoises don't usually eat the chalk, as it is so hard. You can aways scrape some of the cuttlefish on his food to get extra calcium in. I would recommend wetting all of the leaves, etc. that you give him, so that the calcium powder sticks to it and isn't wasted (and it gets a bit of water into him as well).

The temperatures sound fine (which is important). As long as the temperature in your house doesn't fall below about 13C or 14C at night, you shouldn't need any supplemental heat (like a CHE), but to encourage him to be more active you could try adding some additional light (even a low energy bulb can help). I sometimes take one of those bendy desk lamps and hook it over the side of the table to get more light in.

This time of year they seem to sense that the days are shorter and they do slow down a lot. Also, Horsfields have an especially strong hibernation instinct, but because you haven't had him long, we wouldn't recommend hibernating him this year (they need to be in the peak of health to hibernate and you need a year or so to be able to tell if he is a bit off colour). So what you need to do is to fool him into thinking that it's a bright summer's day, and extra light (without making it too warm in the table), can help.

Lots of tortoises don't use their water dish (I have one that does and one that doesn't), so bathing him, as you are doing, is good. They do tend to poo in the bath (which makes spot cleaning the table easier), but a small tortoise like Zippy could have a little poo in the table and it could get covered in substrate as he walks around, so he might be pooing elsewhere as well.

It's great that you're planting seeds. I used to plant seeds in small trays, in succession, so that when one tray was ready it could be fed and in couple of weeks the next one would be ready. Did you know that you can buy special mixtures of seeds for tortoises? If you want a link to a site, let me know.

Which calcium powder are you using? The traditional one that most people use is Nutrobal (it also has vitamin D3 in it), but some tortoises don't like the taste (mine don't), and I now use Revitalise D3 (again can send you a link if you need one). A calcium supplement with D3 added is a must for when they are indoors, but you do need to dose as per the instructions (it's usually just a small pinch), and I would give a calcium + D3 supplement two or three times a week, and on the days when you aren't giving that then I would just give calcium -- e.g. cuttlefish, or you can buy pure food grade calcium carbonate powder on the internet and sprinkle that on the wet leaves too.

I would try to broaden his diet. It's estimated that in the wild they eat over 200 different species of plants, and while we can't replicate that we can try to provide as varied a diet as possible. You can use the filter tool on our plant database to produce lists of edible plants for yourself -- just go to this page and scroll down to the section called 'How to Use the Traffic Light Filters' and follow the instructions. There are still loads of plants in the garden (pansies, campanula, sowthistle, dandelion, plantain, sedum, etc. that you can give): https://www.thetortoisetable.org.uk/pla ... -database/ And if you ever have a question about whether a plant can be fed, and you can't find it in the database, just contact us and we'll look it up for you.

Nina

Hi Nina,
You've really put my mind at rest that we're doing the right things. I've got the seeds from the tortoise hut which has 10 different kinds in it so once they grow that'll help and I've just picked up a pot of pansies. I'll have a look through the database for more ideas. I've just been using proprep calci powder but I'll order some of the revitalise d3 now.
Thank you for taking the time to advice me.
Jo x

Glad to have put your mind at rest, Jo, and good luck growing the plants -- I hope Zippy appreciates your efforts on his behalf.

Regarding the pansy -- if you bought it from a garden centre, it's important to know whether it's been sprayed with insecticide, as tortoises are particularly sensitive to insecticide. If it has, then just take off existing flowers and don't feed the leaves until new leaves and flowers have grown -- they'll be OK.

Please don't hesitate to contact us if you have any more questions or problems.

Cheers,
Nina

Pyramiding is a condition where the shell scutes (individual sections) start to raise and form a pyramid-like shape. It's most commonly caused by incorrect humidity, diet, or growth rate — and it's great that you've spotted it early.