Hi guys!

I'm new to this forum and would appreciate anyone who could message me giving me tips on how to use this app thank you

Hello and Welcome. Your tortoise is very dry looking. It would help if you get some humidity in its enclosure and soak him every day for about a week and them you cold cut back to once a week until he gets too looking more hydrated and less dry.
As for the forum, find the heading that best suits your question, click post new thread, and start typing in the box that pops up.

On the app, tap the top left of the screen on the three little lines are and that will give you all the headings tap on one of those that you want and follow it from there.

Hello and a very warm welcome to Tortoise Forum.

Hi Ben, and welcome to the Forum!

Your little Russian tortoise's shell is starting to grow deformed. You really need to read the care sheet written by one of our members, Tom:

http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/russian-tortoise-care-sheet.80698/

It talks a lot about baby tortoises, but your tortoise will benefit too. He needs to be set up and kept properly in order to grow correctly. Do you have a UVB light? Does he get sunshine? What foods do you offer?

Hello Ben welcome to the TFO from AZ . Have a great tort day !

In reply to the advice given,I feed baeley on lettuce (not iceberg),tomatoes,cucumber,some tortoise food pellets which I add water to,to help with digestion and every now and again dandelions.the enclosure baeley is in is fit with everything he needs as I bought it from a popular well known reptile shop in my area. This picture has a filter so doesn't really do him any justice in terms of his shell however he is bathed once every week in luke warm water x

Your advice was wonky. Pet stores sell stuff, and their advice is geared toward selling stuff. They won't tell you that you must build your own habitat because they don't sell anything big enough.

Tomatoes are a fruit. RTs should not eat fruit. They can't handle the sugars. Cucumber is mostly water & not nutritious so should be a treat only, not a staple. RTs need a wide variety of broad leaved greens and flowers. Feed dandelions often, along with kale, escarole, endive, grape leaves, mulberry leaves, hibiscus, violets... Read the care sheet for more suggestions.

Your tortoise's shell is deformed, and the beak is getting deformed too. Improve the habitat to keep it from getting worse.

Many of us have had the sorry experience of following pet store advice and, as a consequence, giving our animals improper care. Welcome to the club. It's not to late to improve.

Eugh

Benandbaeley said:

Eugh

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It is frustrating but you're not alone. You found the right place for the information you need now. And your tortoise will be happier for it and healthier. I would increase the soaks to 2 to 3 times a week for a while. I soak my adult Russian twice a week. Younger ones need more than that.

Welcome

Any tips I'd appreciate I love my tortoise and I'd do anything to make sure it's health is good!

Benandbaeley said:

Any tips I'd appreciate I love my tortoise and I'd do anything to make sure it's health is good!

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If received a great deal of information. Is there something specific you want answered or suggestions for?

People have mention his shell been 'deformed' and as a fairly new tortoise owner (my tortoise was 2 when I bought him of the rescue shop) if they is any way of been able to fix this to stop further fault. I've done and stuck to everything the rescue shop told me however various comments on here have contradicted the information what the shop employee told me.

Well, basically your tortoise was not given the right care before you got it. It did not have proper humidity proper food or calcium or proper UVB light. So now what you can do is provide all of that to your tortoise. The show will always be a little deformed, but if you're tortoise grows The new growth should come in correctly and maybe make the shell slightly more "normal". It's okay, my tortoise has a deform show also it doesn't make him any more lovable.
Read the care sheet under the Russian tortoise section. Make sure you are providing a large enough enclosure, outdoors preferably but also indoors when there is bad weather, a good diet including enough calcium, proper UVB from preferably the sunshine but if not a good quality UVB bulb. And if you could keep the humidity level at 50° or so that would also be helpful. The specifics of all of this are in the care sheet. Send along pictures of your enclosure and people can provide specific suggestions. You Phoebe, proper diet including calcium, and humidity would be my priorities. Followed by enclosure size and definitely an outdoor enclosure if at all possible. It is a lot but you can do it.

The initial set up is the hardest for anybody, but once you have the conditions correct it's much much easier.

Okay thank you to be honest he's been outside once due to the weather where I live been quite poor apart from this one day and he seemed to love it and I put some enrichment in the enclosure such as bark and rocks which he enjoyed climbing on etc,do you think maybe adding the calcium powder to his food would help? As I was never told to do this before I got him..

A little extra calcium powder a couple of times a week or a cuttlefish bone is not a bad idea, but is only effective if uvb light either from the sun or a bulb is also available as vitamin D3 is needed for the calcium to be absorbed properly.

He has all the correct set up and all working fine,he also doesn't seem very energetic as my friend also has a Russian tortoise and hers is more energetic,however mine tends to dig a hole type thing (wood chip substrate) and sleep a lot of the day there. I don't wanna take him to a vet unless they is something wrong with him which is out of my hands which I can't help as they often find pointless problems just for the money and I think tortoise owners in some ways have more knowledge on how to look after one