Need help - is this shell rot??

[theboardwalkbody]

Hi, I'm a newbie tort owner and I've had my tort Little Foot for a while and everything was fine. But today I took him outside and in the sunlight I noticed these spots. They're white, to me they looked like scratches or something - they don't look cheesy or fuzzy to me, they don't feel different than the rest of the shell, either. I checked his belly and there was nothing there - it's just these three spots.

His enclosure was cleaned about 3-4 days ago, new substrate and all. Water is changed daily, sometimes more if he makes it dirty. He gets fed once a day. His temps are where they should be (per care sheet from breeder and the one on here) and the humidity is, too. I try to give him a sprinkle of calcium on his food once a week (he hates it) and when he gets soaks I make sure he's dry before putting him back in. He did have a longer soak about 3 days ago, it was about 30mins because I lost track of time, but again - I made sure he was dry and I even let him walk around outside a bit for the first time before putting him back in his house.

I googled shell problems and saw some horrible pictures of shell rot (those poor babies) and this doesn't look like those but maybe it's starting? I, obviously, don't want it to get worse! So I'm posting this pic, I hope it's good enough - if not let me know and I'll try to take more (my camera isn't good with close-ups). If it is shell rot could someone tell me like step-by-step what to do. Also what caused it, because I read that it's improper housing that caused it but he's got a big house (hes the only one in it) and the substrate, lighting, temp/humidity, and foods (varied) are all the ones I got through the breeder and stuff. He's got several hides and likes to dig so there's a lot of substrate so he can burrow at night. He's only going to be a year old in a few weeks.
It's on the first three scoots (spelling) around the black marks. The middle one has the tip of a grass blade - that's not the white mark, obviously.

That's as close up as I could get, I cropped the photo so that it wasn't so big. The third one is off to the left but not pictured, but I think you'll be able to tell from the bottom one.

Please help, I don't want Little Foot to be sick.

 

[tortdad]

That looks like a scrape or something. What are his hides made out of. Is there a rock or something he could be rubbing on. Shell rot would start out on the bottom

 

[theboardwalkbody]

Oh, I do hope that's the case! (Assuming that a scrape is the lesser of two evils! Not meaning I hope he's hurt, I want him to be healthy and not hurt!) He has a wooden log (one of the ones from the pet store that's a half log and hollowed out) that I was recently thinking he may have outgrown (it was fine when I got him, but he grew since then). Maybe he's scraping the top of his shell on it when he goes in? But then wouldn't it be all along the shell and not just there (especially being on the top of the shell where it's higher? And wouldn't it be directional? Rather than in spots?)? Other than that there's nothing. There's plastic plants and a stuffed animal. Sometimes he upturns his food dish and pushes it around but it's a plastic lid from an old coffee can. Could the wooden hide do that? I assumed it was soft enough that it wouldn't cause problems but if it's too small for him.... I'll have to get him a bigger one!

 

[JoesMum]

I agree that's not shell rot. It looks like the kind of scuffs thst ocvur from digging or trying to squeeze under something a bit too low. Call it natural wear and tear

 

[Yvonne G]

Shell rot almost always starts on the plastron because the tortoise is sitting in wet poop or on wet substrate. Because your white spots are on the raised front edges of the carapace, I'd guess, just like Kevin has, that the tortoise is scraping his shell on something.

 

[theboardwalkbody]

Oh, good! I'm so glad he's not sick. I'm guessing he's just too big for his log hide now and I'll have to buy the bigger size, that's the only thing I could see him scraping his shell on, everything else is soft. Thanks so much!