Thats an excellent, and very accurate, point Anthravan.......I think lots of people who don't understand how a tortoise works, think because it's still alive, it's fine. They survive but they don't thrive and they slowly deteriorate over the years until finally their insides are so bad, they die.
I've lost count how many people have told me their tortoises died at the 'ripe old age of 20'.....this makes me want to cry........when you explain that their life span is approx 150, to die at 20 is like a 5yr old human dying.

I know a tortoise that lived on custard and rice pudding for years, this was after it went off the dog food it used to eat (a hermann), it never went out, never had uvb, no calcium. The state of this tortoise is heartbreaking......her shell is so thick from excess protein and so flat from no calcium that her tail drags along the floor as if she was male. She suffered from continual anorexia and her faeces were bright yellow and runny. She now has the run of her owners south-facing garden, which is full of good tortoise weeds and flowers and at last can soak up uvb. Her quality of life has definately improved, but her insides are so screwed up beyond repair I doubt she will see 20.

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Phoebe

Keeping: Hermanns and Whitei's

I also read the incredible story of a Russian tortoise that was held over a decade by a young boy who was completely ignorant about everything.

As this boy got bored with the tortoise he simply put her in the garden where she always escaped but was brought back by neighbours.

That might be the reason that she survived in a healthy condition and still lives with this man who accidentally after a decade got real interest in tortoises and now maintains a tortoise Web page with expert advice.

Vitamin D and Calcium is really a complex issue and every animal has different mechanisms to build up bones.

Many animals can compensate vitamin D from sun with vitamin D from food intake and vice versa. But as long as there isn't any scientific info for tortoises you can really rely on I am aiming to provide the best replacement on everything.

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1.1.0 Eublepharis macularius
0.0.1 Agrionemys horsfieldii kazakhstanica

I like pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.
Winston Churchill