Concerned about Sulcata Shell

[Serenalovesturtles]

Hello! I have a 1 year old African Sulcata tortoise. I wanted to post her pictures here and see what you all think about her shell. I feel like her scutes are pretty small and the darker parts (I think they’re called sutures?) in between them are thicker than average and cover more of her shell than I’ve seen in other tortoises. Not sure if that means anything and if I should be concerned about changing her diet/habitat or not.

Also, I know she is too young but can anyone tell me if they think she is male or female? Obviously, she is a girl to me (for now) 😆

 

[zovick]

Hello! I have a 1 year old African Sulcata tortoise. I wanted to post her pictures here and see what you all think about her shell. I feel like her scutes are pretty small and the darker parts (I think they’re called sutures?) in between them are thicker than average and cover more of her shell than I’ve seen in other tortoises. Not sure if that means anything and if I should be concerned about changing her diet/habitat or not.

Also, I know she is too young but can anyone tell me if they think she is male or female? Obviously, she is a girl to me (for now) 😆

The dark areas between the scutes are areas of new growth. They are a normal thing in sulcata tortoises. Over time, those areas will fade to match the color of the older parts of the scutes.

Also your tortoise's tail looks more like that of a male than that of a female.

 

[Markw84]

Welcome to the forum. This is the best place for the most current and tested information on raising and caring for tortoises.

The dark you see is newer keratin growth that forms the scutes. The suture is actually the seam immediately dividing two adjacent scutes and is very narrow. As this suture opens - separating due to bone growth beneath - brand new keratin is formed to fill in the gap. This goes in cycles and creates the ridges you see in the scutes. New keratin in a sulcata is dark brown. It slowly fades over about 3 years to the light tan you eventually see as the base color of sulcatas, and is the color of the centers of the scutes. When your sulcata is older, you can actually see about 3 shades of lightening brown from edge to center of each scute.

Please read through the care sheets in the sulcata section. Your tortoise is doing very well but is pyramiding slightly with your current setup. That tells me something is amiss with the enclosure that should be easy for you to fix for your beautiful tortoise.

Here is the link to the care info:

The Best Way To Raise A Sulcata, Leopard, Or Star Tortoise

I chose the title of this care sheet very carefully. Are there other ways to raise babies? Yes. Yes there are, but those ways are not as good. What follows is the BEST way, according to 30 years of research and experimentation with hundreds of babies of many species. Babies hatch during the...

tortoiseforum.org