Two tortoise stories:
1. This one is so sad:

2. We never ever let the tortoise have any protein because ever book and every vet says that it causes problem like pyramiding. While I am sure it is not the normal food for a sulcata, and we never feed it to him - he does have some natural hunter instinct. My old sulcata Sahara ate a crow, basra was caught with a squirrel foot, and then it ate our parakeet when it escaped (e:paul,49948) plus you saw how it freaks out for the hamster (e:paul,53079). A scientist did a study suggesting that pyamiding in sulcatas is actually not caused by protein consumption but by low humidity which fits basra for the winter. Apparently I need to up his humidity.

SUMMARY: Researchers using Geochelone Sulcata hatchlings with controlled humidity settings and controlled dietary protein levels found that providing adequate hydration was much more crucial in preventing pyramiding than reducing dietary protein.

To: herpnutrition@yahoogroups.com
From: walkaboutf@aol.com
Date: Sun, 28 Sep 2003 19:50:43 EDT
Subject: [HerpNutrition] New Research on Pyramidal Growth in Tortoises.

Regarding our emailings on this list, we've had several requests for reprinting in hard copy and also for forwarding to other lists. Both are fine and permitted as long as credit is given to our HerpNutrition list and Walkabout Farm. Our goal is simply the dissemination of knowledge in order to advance the science of herpetoculture, so it's great to see the information out there in other venues.

Those of you with tortoises and turtles are perhaps familiar with the problem of pyramidal growth in the carapaces of young captive tortoises. Many factors have been incriminated --- dietary protein, calcium, vitamin D, Ca:P ratios, low UVB, rapid growth from high calorie diets --- but to date our information has been strictly observational and anecdotal. One paper published 15 years ago suggested environmental humidity may play a role in pyramidal growth (Weser, 1988, Zur Hockerbildung bei Schildkroten. Sauria 10:23-25). No controlled trials have been done, until now.

A paper has just been published by nutritionists at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna (Austria). Fifty hatchling Geochelone sulcata (siblings and half-siblings from the same farm) were placed in one of five groups that differed in dietary protein and environmental humidity. Protein levels were 14, 19 and 30% crude protein on a dry matter (DM) basis; the diet form was soaked pellets mixed with endive. Extra calcium was provided each group. Humidity groups were arid (24-58%), medium (31-75%) and high (45-99%). Lighting was by three different lights, including UVB-emitting Reptisun 5.0 by ZooMed.
Pyramid humps were quantified by means of measuring the depth and side-lengths of the second and third, and third and fourth central plates on the carapace. Ratios were calculated and termed the H-value (H=hump). Statistical tests included appropriate non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis test and Mann-Whitney U-test.

The study lasted 5 months.

The researchers found that growth rates differed significantly with dietary protein level. Hematocrit and serum levels of calcium and phosphorus did not differ between groups. They found that dietary protein had little effect on pyramidal growth.

However, the researchers found that environmental humidity had a significant effect on pyramidal growth. Sulcata kept in the drier conditions had significantly greater pyramidal growth, and those kept in the highest humidity level had smooth carapaces. Photos accompany the data and statistical analyses.

The authors suggest that under natural conditions, the faster growing hatchlings would be in the humid areas under growing grasses. In contrast, those naturally in dry areas would have no growing grass because of food scarcity, hence have lower food intakes. During food scarcity, there is little growth and probably little bone growth.

Thus, the combination of arid conditions and abundant food is abnormal for young tortoises, yet is commonly found in captivity. However, correction of the problem is not through food (calories, protein) restriction, which can secondarily lead to immune suppression, stunting, debilitation from multiple nutrient deficiencies, and shortened lifespan, but through increasing humidity. When humidity was high, then high food intake, and high dietary protein, did not lead to pyramidal growth.

The authors hypothesize that during dry conditions, dehydration reduces both intra- and inter-cellular pressures on soft cartilage at the areas of bone growth, which could lead to collapse of the soft tissue and subsequent ossification in the collapsed position.

The authors conclude the paper by recommending hide areas of 100% humidity be available to tortoises at all times.

Further work is needed to replicate these results, determine mineral balance (acid-base balance) under dry and humid conditions, and examine the carapacial tissue histologically.

For details:
Wiesner CS, Iben C. 2003.
Influence of environmental humidity and dietary protein on pyramidal growth of carapaces in African spurred tortoises (Geochelone sulcata).
J Anim Physiol a Anim. Nutr 87:66-74.

---

Susan Donoghue, VMD, DACVN
Owner, Nutrition Support Services, Inc.
HerpNutrition at Walkabout Farm
www.HerpNutrition.com

I miss (e:terry) so much already. I am not sure how I am going to manage a full 12 days.

::DOWNLOAD SOUND::

I need to go on vacation. I am over the limit on hours. Its been years now since I have went. (e:terry) is going on a Vegas vacation tomorrow. I am pretty jealous.

This seems like quite a major flaw in the security of the iphone 4/3GS

Bad news: if you own an iPhone 4, be careful -- bypassing your lock screen is simply a matter of hitting "emergency call," dialling "###," presssing the call button, then immediately pressing the lock button. Voilá -- one cracked iPhone. After the break, there's a video of some Spanish Portuguese-speaking guy showing you how to carry out the exploit.

There was this little red diary. Sadly it was only 2 pages or I would have bought it. I love other people's diaries.

There were some nice yearbook photos with stories on them. The grey cardboard portrait books folded open and one the left side was a letter to the person they gave the card to and on the right was the portrait. Kind of like a greeting card with a picture of yourself that you could give out to your friends.

I offered the saleswoman $10 for 10 of them. She told me, "Those people went to Dartmouth. The pictures are worth at least $10 each." I said, "ok forget it then," while thinking, "does she really believe everything Dartmouth related is worth something?" As I was leaving she tried $40 for all 10. I left.

I should have just taken pictures of the letters looking back on it. She thought I wanted them to resell but I just wanted the stories and would have probably thrown them out post digitalization.

I am so going to be there. Sadly, (e:terry) will be out of town.

Seems like they aren't doing so well. The bischop and diocese office is for sale on Deleware. Wonder what that means for the church next door?

...that I will ever buy. The one stinks so bad. It got full of sloshy, nasty, moldy water.

I quit the gym back in August and since then I lost the 15 lbs I had gained over two years. I guess I was really meant to be 150. Here is the the blog where I had just crossed 150lbs (e:paul,45837) going the other way. And here is where I was at the weight I want to be but can't dedicate myself to maintaining (e:paul,51035)

I am posting this from Internet Explorer 9 on windows 7. There were a bunch of changes I had to make for surebert toolkit to work with IE9. The most interesting was that IE9 now supports document.addEventListener but it does not support e.__defineGetter__ which meant I had to make some changes. I bet a lot of scripts that used if(document.addEventListener) as way of detemining which event engine to use are going to be messed up. I mean there is always compatability mode, but I want stuff to work natively.

The best part about IE9 was the inclusion of what appears to be a fully functionaly javascript developer tool that is like firebug for firefox. Finally a true JS log and error debugger without the need to start an additional program like visual studio or microsoft script debugger. Between that and all the HTML 5 support they might have a fighting chance to gain developer interest. I guess we will see.

What would be really crazy is if they released IE9 on multiple platforms. Its one thing all the other browsers, especially chrome and firefox have going for them.