Dull-looking head/spotted underside of shell

[Sylphie]

I just got Anko on Tuesday, so we've had him/her for about three days now, but his/her head doesn't really look like those of baby redfoots I've seen in pictures and the underside of his/her shell is showing some odd coloration, so I'm a little concerned. He/she came to us looking basically like this.
As for his/her care with us: We keep him/her in a large rubbermaid at the moment while we're putting together a proper table. It hovers around 80-82° fahrenheit and we keep the humidity in the 80-90 range. We have a UV light set up and a humid hide he/she uses at night, and we keep the substrate (cypress mulch) damp but not wet and give him/her a soak daily. He/she has a shallow water dish in the enclosure, and we've been feeding a mixture of veggies and mazuri with some aromatic hay. Today we added some vitamin supplement powder, and he/she has a calcium supplement block in the enclosure.

 

[daniellenc]

I think s/he looks normal to me but I'll let someone else chime in.

 

[Pearly]

Hi Sylphie and welcome to the Forum. I can't really tell by the pics you posted bcs they get very grainy when i try to zoom in, plus I've had RFs for only 2 yrs but lets see what some of our RF keepers think, @ZEROPILOT, @Anyfoot, @allegraf, @cdmay, @tortadise, guys would you pls chime in?

 

[Redfool]

Looking at the pics of your rf it looks to be about 3" long. At this size they need a weekly sprinkling of calcium powder on their food. I use calcium carbonate from a health food store or you can get a brand like Repttical. Don't depend on a calcium block for calcium intake. Shaded sunshine is very helpful for rf calcium absorption. The yellow and dark brown/black color is normal, the grayish color is a thin plastron. This is from the inside, not abraded from the outside. Your rf looks real good and will be fine. As for head color it looks fine, just keep hydrated.

 

[Anyfoot]

Hi Sylphie and welcome to the Forum. I can't really tell by the pics you posted bcs they get very grainy when i try to zoom in, plus I've had RFs for only 2 yrs but lets see what some of our RF keepers think, @ZEROPILOT, @Anyfoot, @allegraf, @cdmay, @tortadise, guys would you pls chime in?

Don't know why but your tagging didn't alert me pearls.

 

[Anyfoot]

I just got Anko on Tuesday, so we've had him/her for about three days now, but his/her head doesn't really look like those of baby redfoots I've seen in pictures and the underside of his/her shell is showing some odd coloration, so I'm a little concerned. He/she came to us looking basically like this.
As for his/her care with us: We keep him/her in a large rubbermaid at the moment while we're putting together a proper table. It hovers around 80-82° fahrenheit and we keep the humidity in the 80-90 range. We have a UV light set up and a humid hide he/she uses at night, and we keep the substrate (cypress mulch) damp but not wet and give him/her a soak daily. He/she has a shallow water dish in the enclosure, and we've been feeding a mixture of veggies and mazuri with some aromatic hay. Today we added some vitamin supplement powder, and he/she has a calcium supplement block in the enclosure.

View attachment 212667 View attachment 212668

Looks normal to me. I have one even darker than this. Your care seems ok so all is well.

 

[Anyfoot]

Looking at the pics of your rf it looks to be about 3" long. At this size they need a weekly sprinkling of calcium powder on their food. I use calcium carbonate from a health food store or you can get a brand like Repttical. Don't depend on a calcium block for calcium intake. Shaded sunshine is very helpful for rf calcium absorption. The yellow and dark brown/black color is normal, the grayish color is a thin plastron. This is from the inside, not abraded from the outside. Your rf looks real good and will be fine. As for head color it looks fine, just keep hydrated.

Tell me more about thin plastrons looking gray. Is this why some of my baby northerns look greyish on the plastron when hatched but over time turn yellow as the plastron thickens.

 

[Redfool]

Yellow and brown are OK. The grayish is just the outer layer of the plastron.The grayish is actually looking through the plastron. I found this out the hard way years ago. I had a juvy rf roll over and fire ants got to it before I could. This rf had the same grey. I ended up cleaning the shell (after ants did most of it) and the spots which are usually in the center of the plastron scutes were thin,not quite see fhru. I have that shell lacquered and on my shelf to remind me to Amdro. With calcium and growth these turn yellow.

 

[Redfool]

Sylphie your redfoot looks good. There is no uniform color of a rf plastron. Your tort has very cool coloring, very dark, hardly any yellow on carapace. How about an overhead pic?