Growth rate
Posted: 17 Feb 2019, 09:18
Hi guys, first post, yay!!
Just looking for a bit of insight about my torts growth rate! Here is her background, i posted on reddit for advice a few weeks back so I've copy pasted for laziness;
"I work in a pet shop, and a few weeks ago a lady came in looking for advice about the tortoise. It belonged to her nephew, his mother had bought it for him but none of the setup to go with it. Consequently Bella was living in a fish tank on sawdust with only a heat lamp and single hide. She had no vitamin or calcium supplementation and no UV. Nephew had gone travelling and left tortoise with the nice lady, who knew nothing about reptiles but knew something wasn't quite right. I'm the go-to person in my store for reptile advice (I have far too many snakes) so I gave her the supplements, better substrate, some care sheets, and some dietry advice. Lady went home, called nephew, and gave him a massive telling off for not bothering to research how to keep them. She demanded he send her money for the equipment she'd bought, and he said he would, plus a few extra bits. He didn't, so lady confiscated the tortoise, and asked me if I wanted to take her in. I can never turn down an animal in need so of course I said yes!"
Bella is a Hermanns tort (they thought she was a leopard and then a horsfields ). When I first got her a month ago she was 70mm and 82g, she was completely empty and a little dehydrated. The next week, hydrated etc, she went up to 87g. Now, a month after the initial weight in, she is 75mm long and 99g (post-bath and drink, should have weighed her before but hindsight). Is this too much? I've read they should only put on a few grams a month and I'm worried that she's putting on too much too fast. I'm trying not to over feed her but with no reference other than 'watch her weight' it's a bit difficult! I'm making an effort to weigh her food, she gets about 4g for breakfast then a few leaves of something in the evening. She does have live plants in her tank, a spider plant and some broms, but aside from an experimental nibble when I first put them in she doesn't seem to have touched them so I don't think she's gorging on them. A couple times a week I offer her some pro rep dry tortoise food too, she doesn't seem that interested but I figured it would be good to have her used to it in case of emergency weed shortages!
Thanks for reading
Just looking for a bit of insight about my torts growth rate! Here is her background, i posted on reddit for advice a few weeks back so I've copy pasted for laziness;
"I work in a pet shop, and a few weeks ago a lady came in looking for advice about the tortoise. It belonged to her nephew, his mother had bought it for him but none of the setup to go with it. Consequently Bella was living in a fish tank on sawdust with only a heat lamp and single hide. She had no vitamin or calcium supplementation and no UV. Nephew had gone travelling and left tortoise with the nice lady, who knew nothing about reptiles but knew something wasn't quite right. I'm the go-to person in my store for reptile advice (I have far too many snakes) so I gave her the supplements, better substrate, some care sheets, and some dietry advice. Lady went home, called nephew, and gave him a massive telling off for not bothering to research how to keep them. She demanded he send her money for the equipment she'd bought, and he said he would, plus a few extra bits. He didn't, so lady confiscated the tortoise, and asked me if I wanted to take her in. I can never turn down an animal in need so of course I said yes!"
Bella is a Hermanns tort (they thought she was a leopard and then a horsfields ). When I first got her a month ago she was 70mm and 82g, she was completely empty and a little dehydrated. The next week, hydrated etc, she went up to 87g. Now, a month after the initial weight in, she is 75mm long and 99g (post-bath and drink, should have weighed her before but hindsight). Is this too much? I've read they should only put on a few grams a month and I'm worried that she's putting on too much too fast. I'm trying not to over feed her but with no reference other than 'watch her weight' it's a bit difficult! I'm making an effort to weigh her food, she gets about 4g for breakfast then a few leaves of something in the evening. She does have live plants in her tank, a spider plant and some broms, but aside from an experimental nibble when I first put them in she doesn't seem to have touched them so I don't think she's gorging on them. A couple times a week I offer her some pro rep dry tortoise food too, she doesn't seem that interested but I figured it would be good to have her used to it in case of emergency weed shortages!
Thanks for reading