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Hi everyone, a while back when I went away I had my sister take care of my turtles and they started a bit of pyramiding on their shell. Since then I only feed them 5 reptomin pellets max each and I have green leaf lettuce or romaine and cuttlebone in their tank. Mei is just giant now compared to Red Bell but there are a few bumps growing near the front of his shell.

Wonder what else I can do.

Have a good source of UVB and be patient.

Here's a pic of what i'm talking about,

Yeah, that's not so good. It will take time for that to go back to normal

like what lantic said, it will take some time to go back. use uvb (just like what lantic said)

Not to the same extent, but my young turtle has some rising shell issues too -- in an effort to help I have taken out sources of protein aside from the 25-30% inside his pellets. Since excessive protein is linked to pyramiding problems (so they think) don't give them shrimp, worms, etc.

Hope things get better as soon as possible

for korey, i can see the same problem in your avatar picture. and yeah too much protein can cause pyramiding. good luck on keeping your turtles healthy. and not having a wierd shelled turtle

Ya thanks, I have thought I limited the protein available already by only feeding a maximum of 5 pellets of reptomin each, he will finish off two large leaves of green leaf lettuce I put in there by himself so I wonder if I should be giving him less.

I don't think you should limit protein totally, just at least feed a lot lesser of it now

Mine's got pyramiding issues when I found mine too (Yeah around bus stop area!) and now they're recovering well and fast with a lot of greens and pellets - I do give them some guppies once per 2 weeks too .

Purely works for me, so, don't quote me xD .

twyangzii wrote:I don't think you should limit protein totally, just at least feed a lot lesser of it now

Mine's got pyramiding issues when I found mine too (Yeah around bus stop area!) and now they're recovering well and fast with a lot of greens and pellets - I do give them some guppies once per 2 weeks too .

Purely works for me, so, don't quote me xD .

You and me are on the same page. I give my turtles protein once a week. The proteins in the pellets are not very strong, and thus, keep them from being protein deficient without getting pyramiding. I give them a lot of vegetables now, too. I like better proteins like the ones in live food, those are more natural proteins found in natural habitats and much healthier than processed proteins.

It looks like the turtle had been fed an unbalanced diet for a while. In addition to the "lumps" on the scutes, the wrinkled appearance of some of the scutes (particularly the marginal ones) suggests that something is/was lacking in the diet.

Does the turtle have a good UVB light to bask under?

I am going to be replacing my MVB with a megaray to see if that helps. I started feeding them red leaf now which they seem to like more then romain or green leaf. Not sure what else I can get in there, I give carrots once a month.