Is my Russian tortoise shell growing or too dry?

Lauraluvs714

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I'm a new Russian Tortoise owner and I noticed my tortoise shell has white on the ring and small indents with white. Is he growing or is he too dry? He stays in an outside enclosure. Weather here is in the high 70's right now and he basks in the sun daily. I give him a soak 1x a week and he has access to water in his enclosure he ignores.
 

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Sa Ga

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That looks a lot like how Morla's shell used to look when I first got her (last Sept 2019). Dry, uneven, horribly bumpy, dull.

Through fixing the diet she had (and learning more and more!), along with humidity levels and lighting I used, it is actually evening out a lot and even has some shine.

@Tom @Yvonne G @ZEROPILOT ....any ideas what is causing this/suggestions to fix?
 

Tom

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The most recent growth happened in an environment that was too dry. Nothing you can do about it now. If there tortoise lives outside there is no controlling the humidity.

Can we see the enclosure? Maybe we can offer some tips for improvement.
 

Lauraluvs714

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I just got him from a reptile store. He was in a glass tank with a lamp and rabbit pellets for bedding. They said they had recently got him in from a farm, so I'm not sure where he was when he last grew, but as of now, he is happily loving outside 24/7 with great California weather. His diet is collard greens, mustard greens, turnip greens sprinkled with calcium and other vitamins every other day and some occasional zucchini squash for a treat
 

Tom

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I just got him from a reptile store. He was in a glass tank with a lamp and rabbit pellets for bedding. They said they had recently got him in from a farm, so I'm not sure where he was when he last grew, but as of now, he is happily loving outside 24/7 with great California weather. His diet is collard greens, mustard greens, turnip greens sprinkled with calcium and other vitamins every other day and some occasional zucchini squash for a treat
Nothing you can do about the past. In time, in your excellent environment, the growth will smooth out and weather.

Here is some diet info I previously typed up:

Feeding:
So much contradictory info on this subject. Its simple. What do they eat in the wild. Weeds, leaves, flowers, and succulents. Feed them a huge variety of these things, and you'll have a healthy tortoise. Tortoises are very adaptable when it comes to diet and there is a very large margin of error, and many ways to do it right. What if you don't have this sort of "natural" tortoise food available for part of each year because you are in the snow? You will have no choice but to buy grocery store food. What's wrong with grocery store food? It tends to lack fiber, some items are low in calcium or have a poor calcium to phosphorous ratio, and some items have deleterious compounds in them. All of these short comings can be improved with some simple supplementation and amendments. A pinch of calcium two times per week will help fix that problem. You can also leave cuttle bone in the enclosure, so your tortoise can self-regulate its own calcium intake. What about fiber? Soaked horse hay pellets, soaked ZooMed Grassland pellets, Mazuri tortoise chow, "Salad style", "Herbal Hay" both from @TylerStewart and his lovely wife Sarah at Tortoisesupply.com, or many of the dried plants and leaves available from Will @Kapidolo Farms. If you must use grocery store foods, favor endive and escarole as your main staples. Add in arugula, cilantro, kale, collard, mustard and turnip greens, squash leaves, spring mix, romaine, green or red leaf lettuce, butter lettuce, water cress, carrot tops, celery tops, bok choy, and whatever other greens you can find. If you mix in some of the aforementioned amendments, these grocery store foods will offer plants of variety and fiber and be able to meet your tortoises nutritional needs just fine. I find it preferable to grab a few grapevine or mulberry leaves, or a handful of mallow and clover, or some broadleaf plantain leaves and some grass, but with the right additions, grocery store stuff is fine too. Grow your own stuff, or find it around you when possible. Tyler and Sarah also sell a fantastic Testudo seed mix that is great for ALL tortoise species and also super easy to grow in pots, trays, raised garden beds, or in outdoor tortoise enclosures. When that isn't possible, add a wide variety of good stuff to your grocery store greens to make them better.

Supplements:
I recommend you keep cuttle bone available all the time. Some never use it and some munch on it regularly. Some of mine will go months without touching it, and then suddenly eat the whole thing in a day or two. Sulcatas and leopards grow a lot. This requires a tremendous amount of calcium assimilation over time. A great diet is paramount, but it is still a good idea to give them some extra calcium regularly. I use a tiny pinch of RepCal or ZooMed plain old calcium carbonate twice a week. Much discussion has been given to whether or not they need D3 in their calcium supplement. Personally, I don't think it matters. Every tortoise should be getting adequate UV exposure one way or another, so they should be able to make their own D3. I also like to use a mineral supplement. "MinerAll" is my current brand of choice. It seems to help those tortoises that like to swallow pebbles and rocks. It is speculated that some tortoise eat rocks or substrate due to a mineral deficiency or imbalance. Whatever the reason, "MinerAll" seems to stop it or prevent it. Finally, I like to use a reptile vitamin supplement once a week, to round out any hidden deficiencies that may be in my diet over the course of a year.
 

Lauraluvs714

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Apr 20, 2020
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Location (City and/or State)
Anaheim,Ca
The most recent growth happened in an environment that was too dry. Nothing you can do about it now. If there tortoise lives outside there is no controlling the humidity.

Can we see the enclosure? Maybe we can offer some tips for improvement.
 
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