New Tortoise, looking for insight

[Glomerulus]

We added this beautiful tortoise to our family a few days ago, and would love to have feed back on his or her appearance. Does she look to be healthy? Any idea at this age what her "race" might be? Her appetite is good so far. She has been eating kale and reconstituted mixed fruit for the three days we have had her.

She is housed in a glass terrarium at the moment, with foam board restricting her view to the interior of the tank. The substrate is coconut coir, but we have a 4'x3' table (will upgrade when we move next) in the works and will be switching to cypress mulch when it is complete. Humidity has been maintained at 75%-90%, at a temperature of 75-80 degrees in the tank at the coldest part.

The plastron has some concerning coloration - is this in line with normal pigmentation or should it be treated as shell rot? If better photos are needed to be certain I can upload more. The tissue does not feel different than the rest.

As for her diet, endive appears to be the most balanced staple green in terms of Ca / ph. Do many of you use it as a staple? Any recommendations for care or general feedback?

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi, and welcome to the Forum!

I'm not up on the different types of RF tortoise, so I defer to other more knowledgeable members to help you with that part.

Endive is a good staple. I also use escarole along with any and all edible weeds from the yard.

 

[Anyfoot]

There doesn't look anything wrong with that plastron to me, it's still healing. I noticed my hatchlings had darker areas around the eggsack and at the scute boarders, over time they faded to almost the same color as the actual plastron scutes.
Spray your torts carapace every morning.
Welcome BTW.

 

[Glomerulus]

I don't know why I didn't think that it could be related to the egg sack! Thank you for the peace of mind. Any idea about how old he or she might be? In lieu of spraying, is a daily soak appropriate? Should I be doing both? A shallow bath at ~85F has been given every other day so far.

 

[Anyfoot]

I don't know why I didn't think that it could be related to the egg sack! Thank you for the peace of mind. Any idea about how old he or she might be? In lieu of spraying, is a daily soak appropriate? Should I be doing both?

If you soak in the morning then you don't need to spray. I'm just obsessed with not letting the carapace get bone dry.
What's the little guys weight. That should give us an estimate age to work too.

 

[HI Tortoise Rescue]

Looks fine to me, too. Hard to tell the age, but the sooner you start it on well-soaked Mazuri, the faster it will grow. Pretty tortoise!

Ken

 

[TammyJ]

That is a really adorable little tortoise.

Mine love the kale too, but I mix it with other stuff like weeds from the garden including clover and water grass. They get pumpkin leaves too and the raw pumpkin itself, gratered sometimes on top of the greens.

 

[Octavious22]

That's a beautiful redfoot

 

[Beasty_Artemis]

Looks nice and healthy to me! Beautiful shell pattern.