A friend of mine who has 2 Herman's torts says...when she bathe's them she usually puts a drop of olive oil in the bath water...Is this OK..she's says it makes their shells shine ?.....and in doing so is it OK for the torts to drink the water?
Lolly said:A friend of mine who has 2 Herman's torts says...when she bathe's them she usually puts a drop of olive oil in the bath water...Is this OK..she's says it makes their shells shine ?.....and in doing so is it OK for the torts to drink the water?
emysemys said:I was told that topicals attract dirt to stick to the shell and this might cause the tortoise to overheat. So I've always told people not to use anything on the shell.
However, we've recently seen a picture of a 12 year old sulcata with a very smooth shell. The owner said she used to rub olive oil on the carapace when the tortoise was young.
So, here's what I've decided to try with my next baby: I'm going to get an artist brush, very fine, and paint the new growth areas of the carapace with olive oil. Not the whole carapace, just the spaces between the scutes where new growth occurs. This will help to soften the new growth and I'm hoping, to help it grow smoothly (along with the humidity thing we're learning about).
Yourlocalpoet said:I've read a lot of things about the oil clogging up pores, stopping the shell from breathing, preventing it from absorbing UV etc, but i must admit i've always added a few drops of olive oil to Esmerelda's bath ever since she was a yearling, not every bath time but maybe once a month? I also massage a tiny amount into the spaces between the scutes once a month and she's never had any problems, i don't know whether it has any benefit on the smoothness of the shell but it doesn't appear to do it any harm, her shell is pretty smooth.
Yourlocalpoet said:I've read a lot of things about the oil clogging up pores, stopping the shell from breathing, preventing it from absorbing UV etc, but i must admit i've always added a few drops of olive oil to Esmerelda's bath ever since she was a yearling, not every bath time but maybe once a month? I also massage a tiny amount into the spaces between the scutes once a month and she's never had any problems, i don't know whether it has any benefit on the smoothness of the shell but it doesn't appear to do it any harm, her shell is pretty smooth.
PeanutbuttER said:Yourlocalpoet said:I've read a lot of things about the oil clogging up pores, stopping the shell from breathing, preventing it from absorbing UV etc, but i must admit i've always added a few drops of olive oil to Esmerelda's bath ever since she was a yearling, not every bath time but maybe once a month? I also massage a tiny amount into the spaces between the scutes once a month and she's never had any problems, i don't know whether it has any benefit on the smoothness of the shell but it doesn't appear to do it any harm, her shell is pretty smooth.
That is really interesting. Maybe the olive oil has some sort of "sealing" effect on the shell which allows less moisture to leave the tortoise? thus helping it to better utilize the humidity that it has. I don't know... this is the first time I've heard of oil as having any type of physiological benefit and not just to make the shell look shiny. Has anyone else ever tried this?
chairman said:Along the same lines (shell care), something I have always wondered about (but never tried) was whether or not products designed to help encourage healthy fingernails in humans would be of benefit to tortoises' shells. I know they're both made of keratin, but being different kinds of animals we might make keratin using a different process than the torts, making the vitamins/minerals that encourage healthy keratin growth in humans irrelevant for torts. Anyone with any thoughts/experience in that regard? And just to be clear, I'm not talking about fingernail polishes that happen to contain "healthy" things, I'm talking about "pure" manually applied vitamins.
Madkins007 said:All keratin is dead tissue. There is no way to 'feed' it to a healthier status- whether we are talking nails, hair, or scutes. Keeping the growing tissue healthy is the key, and most of that is dietary.
Madkins007 said:All keratin is dead tissue. There is no way to 'feed' it to a healthier status- whether we are talking nails, hair, or scutes. Keeping the growing tissue healthy is the key, and most of that is dietary.