Throughout my tortoise keeping "career" which officially started in 1986, even though I had a single box turtle in 1979, I have read and been taught a whole lot of stuff. After I learned this stuff, I repeated it and taught it to customers, acquaintances, friends and family. Much of it was just plain wrong. Some examples: Tortoises get all the water they need from the food they eat. Since they come from the desert, they must be kept hot and dry or they will get respiratory infections and shell rot and die. Giving them a water bowl will add too much humidity and they will get sick. Its fine to keep different species together as long as they don't fight. Romaine lettuce is a great staple, much better than iceberg. With the right diet they don't need any calcium supplementation. They must get calcium supplementation every day. They should be fed only fruits and vegetables, but no meat or dog food. Never feed ANY kind of prepared, manufactured or processed food. Excess protein causes pyramiding. Rabbit pellets are the best substrate for tortoises. The list could just go on and on... Another one was don't put any of that lotion or spray cra* on your tortoise's shell. I would say they don't need it and its not "natural".
Well the last few years, and especially the last year here on the forum, have really opened my eyes and my MIND to new ideas and re-thinking old ideas. If someone walked into my pet shop 15 years ago and said they were keeping a sulcata in swampy conditions, we would have had a big argument about their fitness to be keeping pets. (This is only one reason why I understand the general publics resistance to new and better ideas, and why I like to show FACTUAL EVIDENCE right up front nowadays.) In the past couple of years I've seen several anecdotal cases where some "schmutz" applied to the shell on a regular basis produced a healthy looking, smooth tortoise, despite care and conditions that, in theory, shouldn't have. I've heard of olive oil, mineral oil and "VitaShell" being used to grow a healthy shell. Other than being messy and potentially attracting dirt, I can't see how it can harm anything, so in the interest of being open-minded to new possibilities, I want to give it a try. I'm going to take one hatchling sulcata and raise him the same way I usually do in a convention set up with a heat lamp, hide box, damp substrate, water bowl, daily sun and soaks mixed diet etc... The directions on the label say to apply it weekly, so that is how I will start it. I'm worried that the intense moisture routine might prematurely wash it off, so I might decide to apply it more often. If that happens, it will be noted here in an update post.
Here is part of what I am thinking: It SEEMS that dried out, stiff keratinous scutes are part of what causes the underlying bone to malform and grow upward into porous pyramids. All the shell spraying and humidity is an effort to keep things on the shell "lubricated" to borrow Mr. Fife's term. Pliable, if you will. Well the VitaShell is supposed to do just that. Last years EOP babies turned out really good, but not perfect. I want to see if this "stuff" will get me any closer to "perfect". Now mind you its is made and manufactured specifically for turtles and tortoises, and I know many people have used it in the past, so I'm making an educated guess that it will do no harm. I do want to experiment with some variables, but I will not intentionally or knowingly harm any tortoises in the process. Now I know that no one is out there in the wild putting "tortoise lotion" on wild sulcata babies. But the FACT is that NOBODY really knows what the babies are doing in the wild up until they hit that 8-10" mark and start showing themselves in broad daylight above ground. What we have figured out REALLY well over the last two decades of captive raising sulcatas and leopards is what does NOT work. I'll give this a try for a few months and see how it goes.
I just bought the stuff this evening, so I'll pick the tort and post some pics of the lucky winner tomorrow.
Well the last few years, and especially the last year here on the forum, have really opened my eyes and my MIND to new ideas and re-thinking old ideas. If someone walked into my pet shop 15 years ago and said they were keeping a sulcata in swampy conditions, we would have had a big argument about their fitness to be keeping pets. (This is only one reason why I understand the general publics resistance to new and better ideas, and why I like to show FACTUAL EVIDENCE right up front nowadays.) In the past couple of years I've seen several anecdotal cases where some "schmutz" applied to the shell on a regular basis produced a healthy looking, smooth tortoise, despite care and conditions that, in theory, shouldn't have. I've heard of olive oil, mineral oil and "VitaShell" being used to grow a healthy shell. Other than being messy and potentially attracting dirt, I can't see how it can harm anything, so in the interest of being open-minded to new possibilities, I want to give it a try. I'm going to take one hatchling sulcata and raise him the same way I usually do in a convention set up with a heat lamp, hide box, damp substrate, water bowl, daily sun and soaks mixed diet etc... The directions on the label say to apply it weekly, so that is how I will start it. I'm worried that the intense moisture routine might prematurely wash it off, so I might decide to apply it more often. If that happens, it will be noted here in an update post.
Here is part of what I am thinking: It SEEMS that dried out, stiff keratinous scutes are part of what causes the underlying bone to malform and grow upward into porous pyramids. All the shell spraying and humidity is an effort to keep things on the shell "lubricated" to borrow Mr. Fife's term. Pliable, if you will. Well the VitaShell is supposed to do just that. Last years EOP babies turned out really good, but not perfect. I want to see if this "stuff" will get me any closer to "perfect". Now mind you its is made and manufactured specifically for turtles and tortoises, and I know many people have used it in the past, so I'm making an educated guess that it will do no harm. I do want to experiment with some variables, but I will not intentionally or knowingly harm any tortoises in the process. Now I know that no one is out there in the wild putting "tortoise lotion" on wild sulcata babies. But the FACT is that NOBODY really knows what the babies are doing in the wild up until they hit that 8-10" mark and start showing themselves in broad daylight above ground. What we have figured out REALLY well over the last two decades of captive raising sulcatas and leopards is what does NOT work. I'll give this a try for a few months and see how it goes.
I just bought the stuff this evening, so I'll pick the tort and post some pics of the lucky winner tomorrow.
And Tom give your self some credit forward progress on keeping a smooth shell tort has to start some where from some one I am glad you are doing what your doing and sharing it with us keep it up 
