New Tortoise, intro + questions

[prominent-beats]

I ordered a red footed tortoise a couple days ago and the little fella arrived today! Though, as soon as I saw him I thought "This is a yellow foot!"

Here are some pictures I just snapped of him after cleaning him up. His eyes were goopy. He looks too skinny for his shell. His shell looks to have shell rot. His pee, if that's what it even was - was like a bright yellow thick gel. They cut his nails. And it looks like they carved an "x" onto one of his scutes.

I can't wait to spoil him and make him feel like new again. He has his own area away from my red foot, Squirt (who I have had for a year and a half) for the time being. I want to make sure he is healthy and also to not have Squirt feel threatened in her home. Soon, I hope they'll be buddies.

Anyone know what the gel stuff could have been? A malnourished thing? Is he sick?

Here he is! Now I I have to choose a name for him.

Shell shots:

Picture of "x" on scute:

To compare, here is my red foot - Squirt!

 

[luvpetz27]

Those pics are just adorable!!
They are both beautiful!!
I love the headband on Squirt!

 

[mctlong]

He is a beautiful yellowfoot tortoise. I'm glad that despite his health problems and him not being exactly what you ordered, that you're still willing to "spoil him and make him feel like new again." He's lucky to have you.

I don't now what the yellow gel is. Could it be diarrhea?

 

[FLVenom]

That's not a Yellow Foot. It's a Redfoot from either of Colombian or Venezuelan origin. I've seen TONS in that color form. Nice animal though.

 

[RedfootsRule]

That is not a yellow foot tortoise. FLVenom is correct, it is a red foot of Columbia of Venezuela. Yellowfoots have two large pref-frontal scutes on their nose.

The yellow gel sounds odd. Likely a combination of malnourishment (bad nutrition) and dehydration. Keep him soaked and on the right diet, and it should clear up.

He also does have shell fungus. Let me know if you need advice on how to clear it up.

 

[prominent-beats]

That is not a yellow foot tortoise. FLVenom is correct, it is a red foot of Columbia of Venezuela. Yellowfoots have two large pref-frontal scutes on their nose.

The yellow gel sounds odd. Likely a combination of malnourishment (bad nutrition) and dehydration. Keep him soaked and on the right diet, and it should clear up.

He also does have shell fungus. Let me know if you need advice on how to clear it up.

Yes I would appreciate any advice you have. I wasn't sure if it was shell rot or not. His shell is slippery soft - not rough and hard like my red foot, Squirt.

 

[wellington]

Wow, sounds like you got the little guy in time. Glad you got him. He is very cute and love the color. Your other one is adorable too. Love the head band also. I don't know much about RF, but wanted to wish you good luck. Hope he gets back to the way he should be very soon. Also, congrats on keeping them separated until the new one is tip top. Too many people don't quarantine like they should.

 

[prominent-beats]

Does anyone know how long I should quarantine him? I was going to do so until his shell cleared up.

 

[Madkins007]

I ordered a red footed tortoise a couple days ago and the little fella arrived today! Though, as soon as I saw him I thought "This is a yellow foot!"

Here are some pictures I just snapped of him after cleaning him up. His eyes were goopy. He looks too skinny for his shell. His shell looks to have shell rot. His pee, if that's what it even was - was like a bright yellow thick gel. They cut his nails. And it looks like they carved an "x" onto one of his scutes.

I can't wait to spoil him and make him feel like new again. He has his own area away from my red foot, Squirt (who I have had for a year and a half) for the time being. I want to make sure he is healthy and also to not have Squirt feel threatened in her home. Soon, I hope they'll be buddies.

Anyone know what the gel stuff could have been? A malnourished thing? Is he sick?
(photos snipped)

1. It IS a red-footed. head scalation, plastron scute ratios, etc. point to red-footed (https://sites.google.com/site/torto...orest/chelonoidis/red-footed--natural-history go about 1/2 way down). It does seem to a typical 'Colombian' variety, while Squirt seems to be from the Guyanan Highlands (Venezuela and east).

2. At this point, I would suggest it is a female, but it may not be sexually mature yet.

3. There is some shell rot, but it is not bad and does not look that fresh. Give it a very gentle scrubbing (I would use salt and water) and see how it goes.

4. The pee may have been lots of things. let's not worry about it unless it continues. It may have been a very loose bowel movement from lots of fruit or something.

5. The mark on the plastron is a typical way some people track their animals or sometimes mark wild animals for tracking purposes. It is not the recommended method, but lots of people do it anyway. As long as things look good otherwise, it is just cosmetic.

6. Isolation period- different people say different things, from a couple weeks to a several months. The longer you can go, the safer things will be, and some of the pathogens are tough little buggers. However, since they are from similar regions, they probably don't have anything too horrific to each other. I would go two months if you can last that long.

 

[RedfootsRule]

For the shell fungus, you need an idioine solution (Povidine or Beta-dine, same thing). Dilute it 1 parts iodine to 7 parts water, and scrub his entire shell with that and a toothbrush. Also, choose some sort of athletes foot cream. The active ingredient must be clotrimazole.
Do the iodine scrub the first night, dry off his shell completely, apply the foot cream to the affected area(s), and place him in a plain plastic container for the night. I always do it at night, because they can't go back in their habitat at risk of going into the water bowl, contaminating it with the cream, drinking it, or just dragging it all around their habitat. I do it after they go to sleep, and place them in a small plastic container in their habitat. The next morning, use water and a toothbrush to scrub it all of. Leave him for the day, then do the same exact steps the second night.
After that, just scrub the shell with water every night and use the clotrimazole until it clears up, then about one day after. This takes anywhere from 3-10 days, sometimes up to 2 weeks.

 

[mctlong]

That's not a Yellow Foot. It's a Redfoot from either of Colombian or Venezuelan origin. I've seen TONS in that color form. Nice animal though.

Thanks FLVenom for teaching me something new today! I'd always assumed that yellowfoots have yellow feet and redfoots have red feet. I've just spent the last two hours reading about Colombian and Venezuelen redfoots because of your post.

 

[Michael in MO]

I'm going to chime in and guess girl for your new tort as well, two girls will be better than two males or even an aggressive male with a lone female. One thing to keep in mind when you introduce them to each other.. if they don't hit it off "squirt" might be territorial and you may want to introduce them both to a neutral or redesigned pen to nix the territorial behavior..

 

[kanalomele]

I posted about your yellow urates in our local fb page. But will reply here as well. I have had redfoots that have oddly colored urates when they were given largely processed pelleted diets. Most recent example is one I rescued about a couple months ago that had artificial neon green urates. The dyes get built up in their systems and stored in the urates. After about a month+ on a natural varied diet with daily soaking now mine has normal urates and its shell which was soft with hollow sounding pyramids is getting harder and showing healthy growth.

 

[prominent-beats]

Darn it, I really wanted a boy. I sent the individuals like five emails being very adamant on wanting a 4.75" male before I placed my order. I know it can be difficult to tell the difference but I appreciate the additional opinions. After he is more comfortable, and when he finally will show me his tail - maybe we'll be able to tell better.

 

[Madkins007]

Darn it, I really wanted a boy. I sent the individuals like five emails being very adamant on wanting a 4.75" male before I placed my order. I know it can be difficult to tell the difference but I appreciate the additional opinions. After he is more comfortable, and when he finally will show me his tail - maybe we'll be able to tell better.

'Difficult' is an understatement. It is nearly impossible to sex a tortoise of any species until it is sexually mature. If someone promised a male that was not sexually mature yet, I would be really interested in knowing how they 'knew' it.

 

[bigred]

I absolutely hate when people do this kind of thing to other people. If you dont mind me asking where did you purchase your tort from and did they happen to mention any of these things that you found on your new tort

 

[Michael in MO]

Darn it, I really wanted a boy. I sent the individuals like five emails being very adamant on wanting a 4.75" male before I placed my order. I know it can be difficult to tell the difference but I appreciate the additional opinions. After he is more comfortable, and when he finally will show me his tail - maybe we'll be able to tell better.

if you really want a certain sex I'd ask the breeder what temperature the tort's egg was incubated at, if they don't know then they're making a guess (educated or not they still have a 50/50 chance of being wrong) "Red-foot eggs are temperature sex dependent, incubation temperatures above 88 degrees F (31 degrees C) will produce females, and temperatures below 82 degrees F (28 degrees C) will produce males (Renquist, 1994)."

 

[prominent-beats]

I absolutely hate when people do this kind of thing to other people. If you dont mind me asking where did you purchase your tort from and did they happen to mention any of these things that you found on your new tort

I got him from Turtles and Tortoises.
This is the exact link from where I ordered him. http://www.turtlesandtortoises.com/Western-Red-Foot-Tortoises-Chelonoidis-carbonaria-CB-2010.html
They wouldn't ever answer the phone, return my phone calls, and barely replied to my questions thru email. I was surprised he was alive with the way they sent him to me. His shell is looking a little better but still not 100%.

 

[Madkins007]

Interesting that even their photo model tort has a little pyramiding going on.

Oh, well, When you are ready for the next one, there are a lot of great breeders here!