Applying oils on shells and body

[Alaskamike]

Yes. Could be. Won't come off with water and nylon brush.
Haven't tried vinegar yet.

You could scrub it off with Coconut Oil ....
...just kidding.
I get mineral deposits from my well water on the shells. I scrub it off with a stiff toothbrush & a small amount of Apple Cider Viniger.

Then ...I apply coconut oil. ...
( just kidding , only sometimes )

 

[jbrass]

Because it's not natural . We try to stay in the guidelines of nature. If you want to oil up and sit out in the sun that's on you . But a tortoise shell soaks up moisture from its environment. Oil blocks this . It can also heat up the tortoise if the wrong oil is used . These are just my opinions . A little oil to help moisturize stuck scutes is fine . But to add shine . I wouldn't do it . But it's your animal . Plus the long term effects may workout. You never know until you try it . Are these indoor tortoises or outdoor tortoises ?I'm thinking the oil would effectively heat the animal in the sunshine . Same as you tanning with oils. But I'm not sure . Only time will tell if it's good or bad .

Good grief. It’s not natural to put them in cages. Let it go

 

[jbrass]

I joined this forum because I love tortoises. But after looking through several threads, it looks like its just another way for people to show how much better they are than other people. Everyone is fighting in our world all the time now over everything. Even coconut oil on tortoise shells. Find some peace people. Half of you are against using coconut oil because there is a 1%(if that) chance it’s harmful to a creature of lower intelligence then the one you are likely eating for your next meal. It’s crazy. Keeping them in captivity isn’t good for them either. Live and let live.

 

[Blackdog1714]

Here are my two cents... Anything in excess is bad for you. Years ago scientists found that Pepsi causes cancer in rats- when they drink the equivalent of 3 cases a day. I am all for providing my tortoise with a better life with me than it would get in the wild.
1. I will not eat it
2. I will offer food daily
3. I seperate the torts and the other four legged animals- My Newfie could fit both torts in his mouth
4. I strive to maintain the best micro-climate for the growth
5. I am open to learning new things and admitting I was wrong
6. I am not saying Tom is the All-Father but dude very little stupid comes from him
7. I got both my babies from TFO members and could not be happier
8. I use JSHeffield's Tortoise Pomade and the time it gives me with each tort
9. I will let my torts speak for themselves- Leopard on 12/26/2019 at 300.8g/1/17/2020 at 375g, Russian as a baby in my handand being weighed on 12/26/2019

Lastly I enjoy TFO because it allowed a NEWB like me to be able to provide the best for my tortoises with out having to go back to school! And please remember "Torting ain't Easy" and "I ain't got a show tort!"

 

[ZEROPILOT]

This is an ongoing "science" that may prove helpful in the future.
Let's keep what we are here trying to accomplish in sight. Let's grow our knowledge.
Several members have noted that treating shells with oils can help stop pyramiding, etc.
Even if it turns out to be just a cosmetic issue and have no actual health benefits, I think we also need to wait and see if there are any accumulative negative affects or other positive affects that we are still unaware of.
This is a work in progress.
The post is already 2.5 years old.

 

[Rex1718]

Not sure why you are wanting to put oil on the torts shell. My sulcata’s shell gets hard water stains from soaking. To help I collect rain water to rinse him in spay bottle after a soak. Not sure if this helps you any, but just something I do. I’ve always been scared to use and oil on my tortoise because of ants, not sure if it will attract them or not.

 

[jso]

My concern is that this is a practice more to do with aesthetics than the well-being of the tortoise, then being justified with other (in my opinion) at the least dubious claims. As far as aesthetics is concerned, I must admit I love to see my tortoises’s carapaces all shiny-it brings out the real beauty of the patterning on their shells. But I achieve this by spraying them with water, and I do that either to replicate rainfall (which occurs from time to time even for Mediterranean species) or as one of the methods of increasing humidity (for rainforest or edge of forest/savannah species). The shiny look is a temporary byproduct.

Claims of moisturising effects (and therefore part of a regime to minimise chances of pyramiding) are interesting. But I think the only valid justification would have to be that it’s an attempt, and possibly a compromise (as so many aspects of captive keeping are), to replicate something that would occur in nature. I think the practice would have a little more validity if the claimed advantages couldn’t be achieved any other way. But if the aim is to keep keratin soft and flexible, there are surely other more naturalistic ways of dong that? For example, I wouldn’t advocate oiling a box turtle, or my kinixys, as a substitute for keeping it in the appropriate damp/ humid environment that it would find in nature, and which can be relatively easy to replicate in captivity.
Basking lamps, and hibernation using a fridge, are very unnatural processes, but they are probably the only way that some species can be kept in captivity out of their natural ranges. Most of us will probably resort to using them. But surely we do so knowing that they’re a massive compromise, and have some risks attached to them: it’s just that they’re probably unavoidable methods in certain situations. Therefore I’d regard these as justifiable methods (if it’s justifiable for us to keep these creatures in captivity at all - which is a much bigger question).

But I really can’t see any justification for oiling the shell of a tortoise or turtle, other than it pleasing the personal preference of the keeper. And that’s hard to challenge without appearing critical of, or rude to, others.

So, I’ll leave it there.

 

[jsheffield]

Luckily, nobody is forced to treat their tortoises' shells against their will, so the people serving up the naturalistic argument are safe... Phew!


Jamie

 

[Toddrickfl1]

If I had to bet all my chips, I'd put them on Coconut oil helping with smooth growth. I raised my first tortoise in an open table and the only thing I've done a little differently is apply coconut oil to his carapace once every week or so I've also used coconut oil on my second tort. Even though she is in a closed chamber. I have seen Redfoots raised in closed chamber that still have minor Pyramiding. I've had no problem with it.

 

[jso]

If I had to bet all my chips, I'd put them on Coconut oil helping with smooth growth. I raised my first tortoise in an open table and the only thing I've done a little differently is apply coconut oil to his carapace once every week or soView attachment 285259 I've also used coconut oil on my second tort. Even though she is in a closed chamber. I have seen Redfoots raised in closed chamber that still have minor Pyramiding. I've had no problem with it.View attachment 285260

Theyre both looking good, second one really nice. Of course, using the oil on the second one in a closed chamber slightly obscures the argument: it could be the closed chamber that did more to help to achieve the smooth growth?
I inherited my redfoots. They’re not exactly pyramided, but certainly quite “ridged” like your top photo. Not too sure of their original enclosures: but I’m doing all I can to maintain humidity now (for their general well-being, not necessarily to try to change their scutes - too late for that now). They’re not in a closed chamber as such, but a glazed “cupboard” so not entirely open either.

 

[jso]

Luckily, nobody is forced to treat their tortoises' shells against their will, so the people serving up the naturalistic argument are safe... Phew!


Jamie

Well, you might have been writing a bit ironically there, but yes, you’re right. Ultimately we do make our own decisions. But hopefully thought-out and, here possible, informed decisions. Trouble is, that depends on who we listen to!

 

[jsheffield]

True... I agree we need more long-term data about the efficacy of treating their shells before anything definitive can be known about it

TFO is a haven for safe and reasoned discussion about tortoises and tortoise husbandry, one of the reasons that I love this forum... informed decisions come from data, not opinion; that why I'm looking at the effects of applying oils to my four torts.

It's a bit muddying that I keep mine (except for the adult Russian) in closed chambers with high humidity, but I think a few years down the road I'll have some useful information about raising tropical forest torts in a cold and dry environment like New Hampshire.

I have trouble listening to arguments that begin with "but in nature, they don't"... in Florida that might be a reasonable thing, but in NH I'm so far from their natural environment that I aim for optimum rather than natural.

I also struggle with the naturalistic arguments because many animals in captivity do better, live longer, than their cousins in the wild.

If you look at the question of oil treatments in FB groups, you'll get a lot of people insisting that you'll damage your tort because they need to breathe through their carapace and plastron and oils will stop it.

It's an interesting topic that bears lots of further study, but seems sufficiently worth it, to me, to merit experimentation with my torts.

Thanks for reading my thoughts, for sharing your thoughts, and for forcing me to think through (and separate) my feelings from my experience and knowledge.

Jamie

 

[jso]

Well, you might have been writing a bit ironically there, but yes, you’re right. Ultimately we do make our own decisions. But hopefully thought-out and, here possible, informed decisions. Trouble is, that depends on who we listen to!

Should have written: “wherever” possible. (The edit function seems to have disappeared?)

 

[jso]

.

It's a bit muddying that I keep mine (except for the adult Russian) in closed chambers with high humidity, but I think a few years down the road I'll have some useful information about raising tropical forest torts in a cold and dry environment like New Hampshire.

I have trouble listening to arguments that begin with "but in nature, they don't"... in Florida that might be a reasonable thing, but in NH I'm so far from their natural environment that I aim for optimum rather than natural.

I also struggle with the naturalistic arguments because many animals in captivity do better, live longer, than their cousins in the wild.

It's an interesting topic that bears lots of further study, but seems sufficiently worth it, to me, to merit experimentation with my torts.

Thanks for reading my thoughts, for sharing your thoughts, and for forcing me to think through (and separate) my feelings from my experience and knowledge.

Jamie

My understanding of naturalistic arguments is that nature provides the only really valid base-line, providing massive clues about how species have adapted to particular habitats over millennia. It seems perverse to ignore that in designing necessarily controlled environments for captive animals. If captive animals do better than their wild cousins, it’s because we’re in a position to protect them from adverse natural conditions such as predators, effects of climate change, drought or flood etc, and the negative impact of humans on natural habitats. But that doesn’t mean we should keep them in ways that deliberately (or through ignorance and/or lack of care) ignore the beneficial features of their natural habitats, such as sunlight, food supplies, substrat s, temperatures etc etc.

Arguments that begin “but in nature they don’t” have the same validity wherever that is said, or wherever we might be trying to keep species out of their natural range, I think. I’m in the UK. There are no indigenous tortoises here! All of the animals I keep are out of their natural range. So everything is compromise, but my aim is to provide the nearest basic conditions, at least, that each species need, and at least working towards optimal.

I might not match nature very well, but that doesn’t give me licence to do anything to or with my charges that I know, understand, or believe to be unnatural. That’s my position anyway.

Enjoying the discussion. Cheers.

 

[Blackdog1714]

Just remember the earth was once flat and the sun revolved around the earth. Our discussion is much more calm though!

 

[jso]

Just remember the earth was once flat and the sun revolved around the earth. Our discussion is much more calm though!

I think my understanding of natural habitats is a bit more up to date than pre-Galileo and pre-Columbus.