Feeding and Nutrition :: pyramiding

[stray_647]

Hi guys

I have noticed that both my little turts have 4 or more rings around their scutes which are also bumpy and raised. Definitely looks like pyramiding and not sheding. Whats worse is, I just found out my brothers all seem to give them snacks when I'm not around like fruits, gammarus, mealworms etc.

I know there has been discussion on this topic many times before. I have been reading various comments in the forums and it seems like there is no clear evidence if it is bad health wise for the turts. Either way, I'd like to avoid it.

I have been feeding them every other day with pellets as much as will fit in their heads, once a day. The days in between they get red, green, or romaine lettuce. I also leave a cuttle bone floating on the top. Temp of the water is usually around 76.5 -77 F. Turtles are very active and show no signs of illness. Both are 4 inches.

I'm thinking of following the feeding schedule below (Borrowed from JANERO)

Sunday- red leaf lettuce or dandelion leaves or anacharis
Monday - 1 large earthworm each, hand fed
Tuesday - same as sunday
Wednesday - pellets (estimated amount the size of their head)
Thursday - same as sunday
Friday - pellets or 3 freeze dried crickets each
Saturday - same as sunday

I don't know if this will help. Not sure what to substitute for the earthworm and crickets. Any suggestions would be great. I'll try to get some pictures soon. Thanks all.

[SpotsMama]

I know pyramiding is bad. I believe it can be accompanied by bone deformaties and things internally get out of proportion so some things gets squeezed, if that makes sense. It's reversable, though, if it hasn't gotten too far along. My turtle had some pyramiding when he was young but for the last year or so I've been feeding him right and you can't see any of the pyramids anymore except on one scute.

More of your turtle's diet should come from pellets. Good pellets are nuitritionally balanced and will provide most of what a turtle needs. Can you substitute pellets in your schedule so the turtles get about 3.5 headfulls a week each? I think in your current schedule they're only getting one headfull or sometimes two a week.

Also, you can pour on the veggies! They can have lettuce or dandelion leaves or anacharis every day. In fact, if you want to just leave the anacharis in the tank for them to snack on (kind of like with the cuttlebone) that would be fine.

Have you seen the pages below? They give good general guidance on turtle food!

http://www.redearslider.com/index_nutrition.html

[megcornell]

Since your guys are 4 inches, they can get pellets every other day. Thats a good basis for your diet. On top of that, do as spotsmama suggests and add lots of veggies! Once they become accustomed to veggies, turtles love them! And it's such a good way to ensure a balanced diet. So long as the pyramiding is relatively minor you shouldn't have many long term issues, maybe a little oddity or two in the shell but it's good you caught it early.
As far as the earthworms and freeze dried crickets- those are high in protein so you may want to cut down on how many you give. They should be more of a snack as opposed to a staple in the diet.

Good luck finding a healthy diet, your turtles will be so happy!

[stray_647]

I'll probably give pellets for 3 out of the 7 days and add more veges for the rest of the days. This is very frustrating to say the least. Here is a pic of one of my turtles.

[SpotsMama]

Your turtle is gorgeous! Such pretty colors! The pyramiding is very mild.

I'm sorry the food schedule is a pain. Once you get into the hang of it, it will be better. Something I do to keep track is use one of the 7 day pill holders that people use for pellets. Once a week I put the week's allotment of pellets in it so then I know exactly how much and when to give them. I just automatically add something from the plant kingdom every day (often what I have gotten for me and my husband) and about once a month I'll give him some freeze dried cickets or a shrimp.

[stray_647]

The feeding schedule is not too bad. I just thought that I had done enough research and was feeding them properly. And thanks for the help.

[industrial_girl_2000]

Wow, great looking turtle & lovely colors!

[marisa]

A pic of the shell dry would show more...Where exactly is the pyramiding?

[steve]

I agree that its mild, most noticeably along the pleurals to me. She is a beautiful turtle.

[stray_647]

This post is a little old but I still wated to post a few more pictures of my turtles' shell. I feel like the shell condition is getting worse, or maybe I'm just paranoid.

[SpotsMama]

I'm not sure I can see the difference - maybe it's just not clear to me in the photo. It takes a long time for the appearance of pyramiding to disappear. A year or more. They pyramids don't really go away, it's just that the shell begins to grow normally and as the turtle gets bigger and bigger the pyramids get less and less obvious.

[stray_647]

well I feed them both 3 reptomin pellets daily with lots of veges thruout the day. I've been doing this for 2 months and am going to keep at it for stleast a year. Maybe post a pic at the end of the year.

[mackadocious]

i have two girls with similarly mild pyramiding, as we over fed them for a couple years before getting better informed about our little friends...we used to feed them too many pellets every day but they're now on a every other day schedule with mostly lettuce in between....this has been for the last 6 months now and i can't tell any difference, but i don't think i will as mine are probably full grown now at 6 & 8 inches....but i don't really mind if they don't change at all, i think it makes them look more worty & trollish...all they need is algae growin on their backs or some mushrooms in the tank!!.....

anyways, to get to my point, i took them both to the vet a couple months back and he said they looked perfectly healthy other then the wound i was taking one of the girls in for (believed to be the result of a fall from a poorly protected nesting area)....and like i said, your baby's pyramiding looks jus as mild, and yours isn't quite as big, so to chime in with everyone else, you should have no worries and some room to grow out of the lumps...

[camee1991]

Your turts look beautiful and look to me as if they are about to lose some scutes! They look like my big girls' shell. She is 10" long and a BIG girl! She has only shed her scutes once so far though.

[marisa]

From the pics, your turtles' problem is retained scutes---they need to shed.