Strange Shell Markings? (white swirly marks)

Hello everyone.
Been quite a while since I've posted.
Been a busy bee at work, training for a new job position.

I am the owner of a 5 month old Ibera Greek tortoise, Squirtle.
He is definitely showing signs of growth, but I may admit with my busy schedule I have slacked just a tiny bit with his care.
Went from soaking him every day to every 2 or 3 days.
Sprayed his substrate every few hours to keep humidty at 60%, now about once a day.

He still eats normally, is pretty active and has his spring mix foods daily which i sprinkle with calcium 2-3 times a week & has mazuri mixed with his greens once a week.

Just put him in for his soak today, when I brought him out, I looked closely and noticed strange markings on his shell I hadn't seen before. Light circlular markings all over his shell & now I am concerned
Haven't seen this before & I'm hoping this is not the symptom of something serious.

Here are photos of him today.
Circled specific places where the markings are clearer on the photos.






Does anyone know what these markings are? Are they a health condition I should be seriously worried about?

Temps:
Basking spot 95-100 degrees
Cool end: 68-73 degrees
Humidity: Up to 65% but drops down to as low as 25% without spraying.

---

Update.
I just found a spider web in one of my tortoises planting pots!
Just killed a medium spider in his enclosure!

Hoping Squirtle wasn't bitten

RE: Strange Shell Markings? =/

Take a deep breath, let it out slowly and relax. Those swirly markings are fine and should just be a sign of growth. I don't know that we really know exactly what they are, but they are fairly normal to appear. As for the spider, good news I doubt he even bothered the tortoise at all.

RE: Strange Shell Markings? =/

any on the bottom shell?.....can you feel the edges of the circles?...if any on the plastron can you scratch the center,is it softer than surrounding shell ?

Re: RE: Strange Shell Markings? =/

edwardbo said:

any on the bottom shell?.....can you feel the edges of the circles?...if any on the plastron can you scratch the center,is it softer than surrounding shell ?

Click to expand...

These precautions are good, but these lines are from NEW GROWTH!!

Re: Strange Shell Markings? =/

Really?? Ahh I hope so.
Had me pretty worried.
Especially since I just found that spider in his enclosure a few hours ago. In his favorite hiding spot as well.

I am deathly afraid of spiders, but I went full out scary movie status in killing this spider lol

He does also have them all over his plastron. Hard to see in the photo but very visible in person.




His shell is hard. No squishy spots.
When I scratch at the white spots nothing happens. They're like imprinted into his shell. But they aren't raised

RE: Strange Shell Markings? =/

His colors are turning so pretty!!! Glad to hear squirtle is growing (and that you are doing job training- woo hoo new job!)

Re: Strange Shell Markings? =/

And is your Thor from what I saw from a recent post.
Love that their colors are growing darker and more defined
They're growing up!

RE: Strange Shell Markings? =/

Here is an old thread on this: http://www.tortoiseforum.org/thread-19544.html

We've talked about it many times and I STILL don't know what those lines are. However they are totally normal and I see them on almost all of my tortoises of all species, on the plastron and carapace. The squiggly lines seem to show up more after they've been sunning in the dry air here and then I put them in a soak. The shell reabsorbing water after a dry spell seems to make them show up more.

Re: Strange Shell Markings? =/

Thank you very much for the thread Tom.
The dehydrating factor actually makes a lot of sense because in this situation as I've said, I've slacked a bit in our Greek tort's care.

I used to soak every day, gotten down to two maybe three times a week.
I'd spray his enclosure religiously three times a day & cover his enclosure aside from his basking area to keep humidity up.
Dropped to spraying about once a day.

And there was the instance where I accidentally left his Mercury UVB on through out the night just 2 days ago. .
Thinking this all now ties together and somewhat explains this phenomom. .

Will def step up his care again & see if this somewhat diminishes

RE: Strange Shell Markings? =/

My little sulcata's have all had this, but its gone within a few months.

Good to hear its gone away in many cases.
Whoa. .
Topic title changed on it's own lol
White Swirly Marks, like it haha

Its not the result of you slacking on husbandry. Its totally normal. You don't need to eliminate it or do anything about it.

I highly recommend a timer for the lights. The heavy duty three pronged digital ones only cost about $10 at WalMart or HD.