What's up w/ his shell?

kdee82

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So we bought a house, walked out to the box garden and was surprised to find a tortoise the previous owners left behind.
We absolutely love him, we did some research and we're learning more everyday. However, these spots on his shell worry me... Is it normal for this to be chipping away both on the top and the bottom?
His shell is not soft, so I'm hoping it's something we can easily take care of.
He seems perfectly happy and curious...
 

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Careym13

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I can't believe they left him behind...some people really stink. Anyway, nice looking tort and welcome to the forum! There are care sheets in the species specific forum for more info regarding redfoots.
 

Yvonne G

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Redfooted tortoises (Geochelone carbonaria) are from South America and are used to living in very warm and humid conditions. So you need to keep your box garden watered well. However, the down side to that is that they sometimes develop shell rot on the bottom shell. From the picture I'm going to guess that this is an old, healed spot, but it won't hurt to clean it real well, dry it, then apply the athlete foot cream suggested by Zero.

The spots on the carapace are areas of new growth that are too dry. You can moisten/lubricate them with either cold pressed, extra virgin coconut oil, or a bit of olive oil, allow it to absorb for about 10 minutes, then polish it off with a clean, absorbent cloth.
 

kdee82

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Thanks everyone!
A girl?! ...really?! I thought for sure male.
Idk why someone would commit to getting a pet that lives so long and then leave him behind, not knowing if we would take care of it. Luckily we're animal lovers and I absolutely love Turbo's company while I'm gardening ...tho I'm paranoid he'll bite my toes sometime.
I read that foot cream would help but wanted to get more opinions on what exactly I'm looking at ...thank you so much!
 

SarahChelonoidis

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Idk why someone would commit to getting a pet that lives so long and then leave him behind, not knowing if we would take care of it.

Did you double check with them that they intentionally left it behind? Maybe it escaped its enclosure and returned after they moved? Or its possibly another neighbour's lost pet? I would want to double check, just in case someone is devastated over a missing tortoise.
 

Anyfoot

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Thanks everyone!
A girl?! ...really?! I thought for sure male.
Idk why someone would commit to getting a pet that lives so long and then leave him behind, not knowing if we would take care of it. Luckily we're animal lovers and I absolutely love Turbo's company while I'm gardening ...tho I'm paranoid he'll bite my toes sometime.
I read that foot cream would help but wanted to get more opinions on what exactly I'm looking at ...thank you so much!
Can you show us 2 more photos please. 1 showing across the plastron(underneath) and 1 of the tail area. Cheers
 

Anyfoot

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So we bought a house, walked out to the box garden and was surprised to find a tortoise the previous owners left behind.
We absolutely love him, we did some research and we're learning more everyday. However, these spots on his shell worry me... Is it normal for this to be chipping away both on the top and the bottom?
His shell is not soft, so I'm hoping it's something we can easily take care of.
He seems perfectly happy and curious...
This tort looks nice. On the first photo it looks like the upper beak is overgrown I think. I'm on my phone and photo looks small. If it is overgrown, feed your tort on a slate or terrocota plate. This will help wear it down as s/he eats. Also offer cuttlefish for calcium, and it helps trim the beak. How big is this tort. Can you measure in a straight line the length of the caeapace (shell).
 

MPRC

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I'm a novice, but that seems like a pretty long tail for a female. S/he is adorable.
 

stojanovski92113

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Well you are lucky!!!! I just love redfoots...I'm not sure how anyone could leave their pet behind!! But I feel as if I read this many times how people find pets left behind. Congrats to a beautiful Redfoot!!
 

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