Help for RedFoot Tortoise

[Lynn66]

Hi I'm new here cause I heard I could get help here because I have no vet for Oliver near by me. I noticed the past week my tortoise Oliver has white spots them and I'm very concerned about it, they eat, they still poop and everything. I'm thinking it's shell rot, may I please get tips and advice. Thank you

 

[Cherryshell]

@ZEROPILOT is our resident RF guru. To be fair its kind of hard to see the spots you're asking about, could you take a few more pictures of the spots in question?

 

[wellington]

The white spots between the very pyramided scutes is just new growth.
Possibly marbling. All normal.

 

[TammyJ]

You need to read the care sheets for this species which will help you to adjust his extremely pyramided condition so it does not get worse. He needs to be soaked every day in warm water to the level of where his bottom shell meets the top one, soak for at least one hour every day. The levels of humidity and the temperature will be explained in the care sheets on this site. Also the correct diet and enclosure size, etc. for a redfoot.

Welcome to the site, and all the very best in your progress towards his care!!!

 

[ZEROPILOT]

I also believe it is marbling. And that is normal.
But the condition of your tortoise is not at all normal.
Please provide us with photos of your enclosure. Lighting, heating, substrate.
Describe your temperature. Humidity and what you are feeding.
Let's get this under control quickly

 

[ZEROPILOT]

This is a pretty "normal" Redfoot for comparison.
One of mine.

 

[TammyJ]

Wow! You are going to get some great help here!

 

[Lynn66]

@ZEROPILOT is our resident RF guru. To be fair its kind of hard to see the spots you're asking about, could you take a few more pictures of the spots in question?

@ZEROPILOT is our resident RF guru. To be fair its kind of hard to see the spots you're asking about, could you take a few more pictures of the spots in question?

I'm so sorry for the bad picture! I will post more better ones when I get home from work.

 

[Lynn66]

Hi I'm new here cause I heard I could get help here because I have no vet for Oliver near by me. I noticed the past week my tortoise Oliver has white spots them and I'm very concerned about it, they eat, they still poop and everything. I'm thinking it's shell rot, may I please get tips and advice.

I also believe it is marbling. And that is normal.
But the condition of your tortoise is not at all normal.
Please provide us with photos of your enclosure. Lighting, heating, substrate.
Describe your temperature. Humidity and what you are feeding.
Let's get this under control quickly

Thank you, I will explain more about Oliver's enclosure once I'm out of work. Thank you for advice

 

[Lynn66]

You need to read the care sheets for this species which will help you to adjust his extremely pyramided condition so it does not get worse. He needs to be soaked every day in warm water to the level of where his bottom shell meets the top one, soak for at least one hour every day. The levels of humidity and the temperature will be explained in the care sheets on this site. Also the correct diet and enclosure size, etc. for a redfoot.

Welcome to the site, and all the very best in your progress towards his care!!!

I will be sure to read it carefully because the petsmart did not give me good sheets

 

[ZEROPILOT]

I will be sure to read it carefully because the petsmart did not give me good sheets

I can believe that.
The good news is that you can stay away from there forever.

 

[Lynn66]

Hi I'm new here cause I heard I could get help here because I have no vet for Oliver near by me. I noticed the past week my tortoise Oliver has white spots them and I'm very concerned about it, they eat, they still poop and everything. I'm thinking it's shell rot, may I please get tips and advice. Thank you

I also believe it is marbling. And that is normal.
But the condition of your tortoise is not at all normal.
Please provide us with photos of your enclosure. Lighting, heating, substrate.
Describe your temperature. Humidity and what you are feeding.
Let's get this under control quickly

For lighting I have been told to use 50 to 75 watt. I have both For daylight no heating bulb and use a heating bulb when the house gets cold cause of the weather. My temperature have broke so I have no clue but it isn't hot I know that for sure. Oliver walks around the house so he isn't in the tank most time of the day. This tank is just his temporary home until I go home but I have work. He normally lives in a 75 gallons tank. I switched his coconut fiber dirt to bark due to moisture in the tank. He keeps flipping this Hut so its not in there. He eats mostly lettuce. Mushrooms. Strawberry. From the garden or when I have to buy when I run out. He also eats other foods but prefers those. I been giving him baths for an hour or 2 depends on his mood, every second day but I will do it everyday due to tips thank you.

 

[Noelluene]

You need to increase the humidity of the enclosure to prevent pyramiding. Luckily its still quite manageable in this case. What types of plants are you feeding him from your garden? Do you provide him with any supplements?

 

[Lynn66]

You need to increase the humidity of the enclosure to prevent pyramiding. Luckily its still quite manageable in this case. What types of plants are you feeding him from your garden? Do you provide him with any supplements?

I did have a fogging machine for him but I misplaced it. What else would work? And I grew Roman lettuce. White mushrooms. Squish (I forgot what kind) strawberry. Raspberry. And Pumpkins. He had calcium but I ran out and won't be able to get any until I get a day off. What kind of supplements would be good? Thank you for this guys

 

[ZEROPILOT]

You're going to need to provide a much larger enclosure and keep him in it. Unless the weather is warm enough that he can spend time outdoors.
You have to get the temperature between 80 and 86 Farenheit. And the humidity needs to be over 70% day and night.
You also need a strip florescent T5 UVB lamp.
Without UVB your RF can not process vitamin D3 and will die from metabolic bone disease or MBD. He is very likely already suffering from it.
There is so much wrong with your Redfoot husbandry that I almost don't know where to begin.
You need to be able to check the temperature. You need to get the humidity way up and you need to get a quality T5 UVB light.
There is still time.
This animal is off to a pretty bad start.

 

[Noelluene]

I did have a fogging machine for him but I misplaced it. What else would work? And I grew Roman lettuce. White mushrooms. Squish (I forgot what kind) strawberry. Raspberry. And Pumpkins. He had calcium but I ran out and won't be able to get any until I get a day off. What kind of supplements would be good? Thank you for this guys

For humidity you can spray down his enclosure with a spray bottle. Redfoots are rainforest tortoises so feel free to be extra generous when spraying. If you don't have the time to spray his enclosure a few times every day, I guess you'll need a humidifier. I do not recommend sealing off the top of the enclosure. A lot of people make the mistake of completely sealing off the enclosure to keep in humidity but the air quality gets horrible as a result.

As for food, romaine lettuce and pumpkins are great sources of food. If you want to find more types of food in your area that your tortoise can eat I'd suggest using the tortoise table.

 

[Lynn66]

You're going to need to provide a much larger enclosure and keep him in it. Unless the weather is warm enough that he can spend time outdoors.
You have to get the temperature between 80 and 86 Farenheit. And the humidity needs to be over 70% day and night.
You also need a strip florescent T5 UVB lamp.
Without UVB your RF can not process vitamin D3 and will die from metabolic bone disease or MBD. He is very likely already suffering from it.
There is so much wrong with your Redfoot husbandry that I almost don't know where to begin.
You need to be able to check the temperature. You need to get the humidity way up and you need to get a quality T5 UVB light.
There is still time.
This animal is off to a pretty bad start.

I do have a UVB light that I keep on the day also, I'm sorry I did not include everything. The house is super hot in general it's just when it gets under 50 below outside that I have to keep the heat on him. He does not like being in any cage in general but I try to. He gets fussy and wants to be roaming around the house or else he won't eat. This one is his old one but I can't haul his 75 gallon one down where I'm at. Thank you for this advice

 

[TammyJ]

For humidity you can spray down his enclosure with a spray bottle. Redfoots are rainforest tortoises so feel free to be extra generous when spraying. If you don't have the time to spray his enclosure a few times every day, I guess you'll need a humidifier. I do not recommend sealing off the top of the enclosure. A lot of people make the mistake of completely sealing off the enclosure to keep in humidity but the air quality gets horrible as a result.

As for food, romaine lettuce and pumpkins are great sources of food. If you want to find more types of food in your area that your tortoise can eat I'd suggest using the tortoise table.

Generally, I disagree with your not recommending a sealed enclosure, especially for a tortoise in this particularly poor condition. If the enclosure is big enough for the tortoise to be able to move around freely and is not small and cramped, then it is certainly very much recommended by some greatly experienced people here, that it be sealed, or at least 90% sealed off, and the humidity levels which are vitally important, and the temperature levels, be maintained correctly. Reptiles are not mammals and do not need the amount of "fresh air" that we do. This is what I have learned from coming to this site and being here for 5 years.

 

[MikeT307]

I can believe that.
The good news is that you can stay away from there forever.

?

 

[ZEROPILOT]

For humidity you can spray down his enclosure with a spray bottle. Redfoots are rainforest tortoises so feel free to be extra generous when spraying. If you don't have the time to spray his enclosure a few times every day, I guess you'll need a humidifier. I do not recommend sealing off the top of the enclosure. A lot of people make the mistake of completely sealing off the enclosure to keep in humidity but the air quality gets horrible as a result.

As for food, romaine lettuce and pumpkins are great sources of food. If you want to find more types of food in your area that your tortoise can eat I'd suggest using the tortoise table.

Spraying down an enclosure is neither effective or consistent enough for the job of 24/7 steady humidity of over 70%.
Although it may suffice for a few other species