Plaston problems
- Thread starter MNLady
- Start date
Wow! I hate to say anything, but your daughter has not been caring for this tortoise as it should have been cared for. Thank goodness you have found our Forum and the tortoise now has a chance at a better life.
All the bumps on the top shell are called pyramiding. This happens when a baby tortoise is being kept too dry. This probably is NOT your daughter's fault (unless she bought the tortoise as a baby). RF tortoises need to be kept in warm, humid conditions, but as you see from the bottom shell, too much moisture causes shell rot or fungus.
You have to learn how to strike a happy medium. You want warm and humid, but you don't want the tortoise sitting on wet substrate all the time. I'll give you a link to read and learn how to correct the shell rot: https://tortoiseforum.org/threads/shell-rot.177428/
May I have your permission to copy your tortoise's plastron picture to include in my shell rot thread? It's a good example of shell rot.
All the bumps on the top shell are called pyramiding. This happens when a baby tortoise is being kept too dry. This probably is NOT your daughter's fault (unless she bought the tortoise as a baby). RF tortoises need to be kept in warm, humid conditions, but as you see from the bottom shell, too much moisture causes shell rot or fungus.
You have to learn how to strike a happy medium. You want warm and humid, but you don't want the tortoise sitting on wet substrate all the time. I'll give you a link to read and learn how to correct the shell rot: https://tortoiseforum.org/threads/shell-rot.177428/
May I have your permission to copy your tortoise's plastron picture to include in my shell rot thread? It's a good example of shell rot.
I meant to say that all that shell rot on the plastron may have been caused by leaving the tortoise to sit in wet, urine-soaked poo. If that's not the case, then a too wet substrate is the culprit.
As for the carapace, you can't make the pyramiding go away. All you can do now is arrest it. The way to do that is to provide the warm, humid conditions the tortoise needs.
As for the carapace, you can't make the pyramiding go away. All you can do now is arrest it. The way to do that is to provide the warm, humid conditions the tortoise needs.
I believe the substrate is the culprit. We do not leave her sit in an unclean habitat. Living in a northern climate makes regulating heat & humidity an ever-changing challenge throughout the year. Thanks for the information. That's what I thought the problem was, but verbal descriptions are not always the easiest to help diagnose a problem if you haven't seen it before. Yes, you can use the photos.
Please include photos of the enclosure so she may help you
