my torts have pyramided?

[tinymaze]

think my torts have pyramided,
when i got my torts 7 years ago i research them to no end, and found out about metabolic bone disease and to my understanding it was all to do with nutrition, calcium and UV, the pictures I've seen are of odd shapes and miss formed shells, so thinking my torts are healthy and happy, im quite upset after reading post and doing some googling, to find there not and my poor husbandry have made them suffer

So my normal routine is,
i give my torts a varied diet of weeds and flowers what ever i can find or grow, also they get a mix of various salad and veg like cucumber, celery, tomatoes, kale, spinach, cress a couple times a week, all food dusted with calcium and only as a treat strawberry's and other fruit, once every two weeks i don't feed them anything (that's what the breeder told me to do) fresh water daily, big enough for them to get in,
spot lamp and a UV strip light, my torts are in a large indoor bunny cage on a stand off the floor, use to have them on top soil but i changed about 7-8 months ago to pets at home herbifloor,
can anyone tell me where im going wrong?
researching now it's saying about tortoises need humidity and this has a big impact on pyramiding? how do i go about adding humidity to my torts en-closer or do i even need it for Mediterranean spur thighs?
I'm in a twizzy at the moment that I'm not doing it right so any help would be gratefully received, here are my two,

petrie,


little foot,

[NATURALIS]

They really do need humidity , keeping them on pellets wont help they need soil kept damp , they also need to be outside as much as poss keeping them in a rabbit cage at that size isn't great , what supplement's are you using , how far from the tortoise is the uv and how often has it been changed what strength is it , what are the temp's both ends , lastly some of the food you fed isn't great for them take a look on the tortoise table for idea's on diet's. Please note this isn't a criticism trying to help .

[Gordon]

As Chris says the pyramiding they have is not reversible but not as bad as i have seen on some torts also get rid of those nasty pellets and use soil which you will need to keep damp.
Also i would cut down on the cucumber celery and tomatoes

[tinymaze]

Thanks for the replies, so i change them back to top soil, but this is how they grown even on soil, so do i need more humidity? I always thought too much or dampness lead to breathing problems? How do i get it just right? Do i spray the enclosuser?
They have a bath at least once a week and luke warm water in there bowl every day that the can get in, and i'll cut down on the salad usually do in spring /summer as you can get weeds in abundance,

[Suze65]

As Chris and Gordon have said, get them off those horrid pellets and onto some top soil and keep it moist. When they are hatchlings they need to be soaked daily and as young juveniles soak several times a week and this would of helped a lot, along with the correct diet and supplements. The bumps are not reversible, but I would get them on a better diet. Stop giving tomatoes, rarely give cucumber and abandon the fruit. With the weeds, also give florette crispy lettuce, rocket, kale occasionally . Have a look on the tortoise table site, it will help a lot with diet and supplements. I think they are still nice looking torts.

[Leo's_Ma]

Hiya.
You may need to change your UV strip lamp they only last for 6 or so months. Like it's been said before change to a soil/sand mix and spray regularly to create humidity, you can also get/buy tortoise friendly mosses and put some moist moss in the hide to increase humidity. Re-think the torts diet. They don't really need fruit, spinach etc. Stick to weeds with a calcium supplement.
Don't feel too bad, there are many conflicting statements regarding husbandary, good thing is you came here and will be given lots of good advice to provide the best care you can for petrie & little foot.

[tinymaze]

Ok thanks guys i did post a comment earlier this morning asking that but it's not showed up yet so thanks for the replies, (think they have to be approved so don't know when this one a show up?) i'v got some moss so i do a wet hide, gone and got some top soil so I'm changing them now,
From spring to summer they normally only get weeds and flowers as it's easy for me to get them (and it's cheap as there free lol) and they only get fruit as a once in a blue moon treat, when i research them before it said a weed diet is best so i did try to give them that as much as possible but winter can be tough and also the tone was to stay away from pellet food so i stayed clear of them, but i guess since then more research has been done and allot more info out there i guess you should be always looking for more updated stuff on animals it's only i get set in my ways but lucky i brought some weed seeds of ebay and found this site to say I'm going wrong, (in a very wierder way lucky i broken my finger and am off sick from work to give me the time to kill on the net, but that's another story i won't go into but i guess you could say things happen for a reason, lol)
i'll change the uv light as i didn't know about the time frame on them thanks Leo's_ma for that info and everyone else thanks allot hopefully i can get it right, for my little two,

[Gordon]

When you change your uv whether its a strip or combined bulb write the date on it with a permanent marker then you know how old it is

[tinymaze]

thanks that's a good idea turnip, wasn't sure whether to post my enclosure in this post or in housing, so i opened a new post and posted it in housing just in case, hopefully it's ok?

[kazzabb]

Hi tinymaze, you might consider getting some pre-alpin which is dried grasses and weeds, and you can get it from thetortoiselady.co.uk I also feed mine lots of different dried flowers and plants from Shelled Warriors shop, there is a mix of about 27 different tort-edible stuff, in one pack, but I think the shelled warriors shop people are on hols for 3 weeks. Basically this dried stuff is softened with warm water for about 30 mins and then mixed in with their water-dampened salad, it helps give them lots of fibre in the winter when weeds are either dead from frost or buried under snow!
Your torts are a bit humpy, but nice anyway. Most of mine are humpy too, but their shells do even out a bit over time.
Hope your finger gets better soon.
Karen