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69633
Hello Everyone,
I'm new to Redtail boa and would like to introduce myself and perhaps address a few posts in this forum.
My name is Debbie Zajchowski and I am the founder/director of Massachusetts Turtle Rescue, Inc. We are a 501 (c)3 nonprofit organization that provides rescue, rehabilitation, and adoption services for all chelonians.
The first issue I would like to address is that of the pyramided sulcata. Yes, with proper diet, pyamiding can certainly be stopped and as the tortoise grows the pryramiding will tend to fade a bit. There, may however be other factors that tend to allow for pramiding and not just a high protein diet. These factors may include: Too much food, low fiber food, inaccessible calcium, lack of exercise, and hydration status. The hydration status is not fully understood, but an experiment was done with a group of 20 redfoot where they were feed a high protein diet and maintained in shallow water. None have shown any signs of pyramiding. This may suggest that tortoises with pyramiding may actually not have enough water intake. It is by no means saying that we can feed high protein diets as long as we maintain these animals in water. We may, though consider offering our tortoises more exposure to water by providing clean water at all times.
The second issue I would like to address is the post concerning the petting of the tortoise's shell. Shell tissue is live tissue. The carapace is the upper part of the shell and contains 50 bones originating from the ribs, vertebrae, and dermal plates in the skin and is covered by 26 keratin scutes. The lower part of the shell is called the plastron and has 11 bones derived from clavicles, interclavicles, and abdominal ribs and is covered by 11 keratin scutes. It cannot be said that the shell is like a helmet in which when it is tapped it feels like the helmet on our head. The do feel gentle touches because this is live tissue; just the same as if we were to touch their legs.
In the post "what type of tort do you recommend" I have concerns with mixing two different species of turtles and it is a much worse scenario if you are considering a tortoise with a turtle. Both have entirely different needs, foods, environment, and the like, and there would be no way that we could provide an environment where both would be comfortable. THe best thing to do is to get the same species of turtle you already have.
Feeding mushrooms to sulcata is not a good dietary choice. They are primarily grazing animals and feed on a variety of grasses and weeds in the wild. There are many sites on the web that offer good dietary advice for sulcata and if you would like some assistance finding some let me know and I will help you. There is a great post in this forum concerning sulcata diet under "feeding suggestions' The only thing I would caution with is feeding mustard greens because they contain a property called oxalates. What this means is that this property binds with calcium rendering any calsium update basically useless to the animal. In small amounts provided a good diet is feed otherwise it should not pose a significant problem.
I hope that this has helped with questions that have been posted here and if I can help please dont hesitate to ask.
Debbie
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