Is there anything I can do for my leopard tortoise's shell?

[Falco]

Hello guys i'm from Taiwan so I want to apologize for my bad english at first and it's nice to join this big family here.

here is the thing... my baby leopard tortoise (which was born at the beginning of this year), seems to have some kind of problem with its shell and i don't know the proper word of it. In Taiwan we call it "sticked shell", and i don't find any theory that really convinced me how does it happen and what should i do actually.

would you please check the attached photos and tell me the right keywords to search for this problem?
thank you very much.

 

[T Smart]

Hello guys i'm from Taiwan so I want to apologize for my bad english at first and it's nice to join this big family here.

here is the thing... my baby leopard tortoise (which was born at the beginning of this year), seems to have some kind of problem with its shell and i don't know the proper word of it. In Taiwan we call it "sticked shell", and i don't find any theory that really convinced me how does it happen and what should i do actually.

would you please check the attached photos and tell me the right keywords to search for this problem?
thank you very much.View attachment 249461

Hi, and welcome to the forum! Are you referring to pyramiding?

 

[wellington]

Your baby looks beautiful. The only thing I see is the lines in the blonder areas is new growth lines and you have slight pyramiding starting. Keep him in a warm 80 degree F and 80 % humidity with a basking spot of 95-100 closed chamber enclosure and s/he will grow beautiful.

 

[wellington]

Hello and Welcome and your English is just fine.

 

[Falco]

Your baby looks beautiful. The only thing I see is the lines in the blonder areas is new growth lines and you have slight pyramiding starting. Keep him in a warm 80 degree F and 80 % humidity with a basking spot of 95-100 closed chamber enclosure and s/he will grow beautiful.

Thanks for your reply! I really appreciate it.
The actual thing that I'm worried about is the area circled by red should be separated by yellow.
Is it possible that other areas grow faster than the yellow line marked areas, so they can't open normally? I

 

[Falco]

incase the photo load to slow:
https://imgur.com/a/PJ5ByIn

 

[Yvonne G]

you're saying you think the scutes are stuck together? I don't think so. The scutes along the bottom edge of the shell will grow more slowly than the ones on the top of the shell. They look fine to me. But let's ask @Markw84

 

[Falco]

you're saying you think the scutes are stuck together? I don't think so. The scutes along the bottom edge of the shell will grow more slowly than the ones on the top of the shell. They look fine to me. But let's ask @Markw84

ohhh so it's called scutes! thank you Yvone ^_^

 

[Markw84]

@Falco i See this more in leopard tortoises than any other species. The growth seam between scutes often will not expand on one edge of the scute. Normally I see it most commonly in the vertebrals. Most always with leopards, one side of the vertebral espamds while the other does not, and will slightly "stack". With the vertebrals it is often the back edge of the 2nd vertebral that does this stacking, while the front edge expands as the bone beneath grows. ON your tortoise this is happening, but also a few of the marginals are doing this as well. This is purely cosmetic.

Since bone growth happens most near the sutures or "seams" of the bone, and scute seams do not coincide with bone sutures, you have bone expansion at different locations than scute seams. A scute is "stuck" or somewhat attached to an area of the underlying bone at the aerolae of the scute. As growth occurs, the bone expands and this seperates these areolae causing gaps in the scutes. New keratin fills in these gaps to enlarge the scute. Sometimes the location of a scute edge or adjacent aerolae are above areas of no, or minimal bone growth. The result is a scute seam that does not expand and you have a "stuck" scute seam.

As stated earlier, I see this commonly in leopard tortoises. You also see this more with split scutes as well as "normal" scute attachements are doubled and often therefore much closer together intially.

 

[SweetGreekTorts]

Beautiful leopard!

 

[Yvonne G]

@Markw84 - The op asks is there anything they should do about it? Since you say it's cosmetic, I'm guessing, no.???

 

[Markw84]

@Markw84 - The op asks is there anything they should do about it? Since you say it's cosmetic, I'm guessing, no.???

Correct. It is simply the way the tortoise is growing I don’t believe there are any husbandry issues that effects this.

 

[Falco]

Thanks everyone especially Yvone and Mark, It really helps a lot!
@Markw84 , I was guessing this might be caused by growing too fast, is that make sense to you?
i know the keeper of his/her other siblings, but they didn't grow as quick as s/he and they didn't appear to have this situation.