The "grow them slow" phrase has obviously come from looking at wild tortoises. Most wild tortoises are smooth and grow slowly (because it's either too hot or cold to eat or the food isn't nutritious. So if wild tortoises grow smoothly it would make sense to mimic the conditions i.e. restrict food.
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Originally Posted by pagan queen
I think some of the really bad torts you see are deprived of calcium. To build shell the body needs calcium, without it there is no building block for growth. So those torts you see with tiny shells perched on top of the torts have been starved of the building blocks needed for shell growth. The body of the tort has to grow but the shell isn't able to. The bones are leached of their calcium to try to supply enough for the shell to grow so the bones become soft and deformed. Also the wrong food can, as we know, reduce the ability of the body to use calcium. So if there is a diet of just dandelions the body can't utilise calcium even if there is any available.
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You're right Wendy, although you didn't mention vitamin D3, you can supply shed loads of calcium but without D3 it's useless. So either proper supplementation or UV lighting is needed. One without the other is useless.