Help with shell growth please

Yvonne G

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Jan 23, 2008
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Location (City and/or State)
Clovis, CA
I received this message from a new member, and as I don't keep Hermanns tortoises and know very little about them, I wanted to post if for all of you to offer help and advice:

Hello Yvonne,
I hope you dont mind me messaging you. I have combed through some of the threads on the forum and noticed you are an active source of information. The reason i am writing you is because i am a first time tortoise owner, i adopted a eastern hermanns in late spring and i have been driving myself insane trying to provide the perfect life for my friend Dennis.

Since i have got dennis there have been a few things that worried me. First was availability of food where i am located. Fortunately i found a source for organic grocery store substitutes combined with proper supplements recommended by a local tortoise enthusiast.

Next was his change in activity during the late fall and throughout the winter. after research and conversations i understand that this is generally the natural change in activity due to change in seasons and some lack of excitement.

The other morning i noticed some eye bubbles and changed out his whole substrate (the mixture had dried) and got his home back up to par and will not be mixing the soil and mulch and only using the mulch.

Now i am fretting over the current shell growth i have noticed. Especially the scutes directly above his tail. It appears to be growing downwards and flaring out. I know shell deformities are a combination of diet and environment. My thought is i may be overfeeding. Currently he has a basking spot at 105, 2 10.0 uvbs on for 12 hrs, and heat lamp at all times on the cool side of his enclosure providing temps in the mid 70s-80s. He has a shallow water dish with clean water everyday. He gets a soak everyday. His enclosures humidity ranges from 35-60%. My questions is, should i be heavily concerned? I know it cannot be reversed but i know i can try to prevent it from getting worse. I feed dennis a handful of mixed greens daily.

I am going to send some photos over after i send this message to provide you a timeline of imagery.

Thank you in advance for any assistance and insight.

I hope you are having a wonderful holidays.

Kindest regards,

Kevin and Dennis

The first pictures are before Kevin got the tortoise:

hermanns aa.jpg hermanns bb.jpg hermanns cc.jpg hermanns dd.jpg hermanns ee.jpeg hermanns ff.jpg
Hermanns a.jpg Hermanns b.jpg Hermanns c.jpg

I told Kevin that the clear edge on the carapace is normal growth. If I'm wrong, please correct me.
 

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