Although both BM and CL increased proportionally faster in R-AL turtles than in AL

turtles, these two morphometric measurements demonstrated different dynamics. During the first

week of ad libitum feeding, the SGRbm but not the SGRcl of R-AL turtles was comparable to that

of AL turtles. This decoupling of mass and length growth may result from differential allocation

of assimilated nutrients in the first week of ad libitum feeding. Less energy is required to convert

assimilated nutrients into reserve tissue than into more complex structural components such as

skeletal tissue (Broekhuizen et al. 1994). Growth efficiency would therefore be enhanced in

turtles that preferentially allocated nutrients to mobilizable tissue gain rather than to

unmobilizable tissue gain, at least in the initial stages of elevated growth. The time lag in the

increase of SGRcl but not in SGRbm may also result simply from a rapid increase in BM

immediately after the diet switch due to filling of the gut. At t12, gut contents accounted for an

average of 9.9%, 12.7%, and 13.5% of total wet BM for R, AL, and R-AL turtles, respectively.

Turtles on the restricted diet therefore carried proportionally less digesta than turtles feeding ad

libitum, meaning that gut filling probably accounted for a small percentage of the initial increase

in BM after the diet switch for R-AL turtles.

 I used my measurements of BM and CL to assess body condition (as condition index, CI)

of turtles in each treatment group for each week of the study. Not surprisingly, CI of R turtles

decreased steadily until approximately the eighth week of the experiment, indicating that these

animals were becoming leaner as the study progressed. My body composition results support this

conclusion. Total body nitrogen content was higher and OM, lipid, and energy contents were

lower in R turtles than in AL turtles at both t5 and t12. Somatic growth in food-restricted turtles

therefore entailed either lower rates of lipogenesis and/or protein catabolism or higher rates of

protein deposition and/or lipid catabolism than in AL turtles. In other studies, food deprivation