Hi Everyone,
This is my first post on this forum as I am a rather new tortoise owner. I came to have a tortoise unexpectedly. My husband and I are avid animal lovers. My husband got a call from a friend about a tortoise at a golf course he plays at. The tortoise ( now known as Herb) was in the middle of the fairway walking around. In the picture he looked huge like 100+ pounds. When my husband and I saw the picture we thought wow! so we went up to the golf course to see him. Besides a zoo I have never been around reptiles much less a tortoise. When we got there we realized the picture was a bit misleading as he was much smaller. There were many people crowded around him passing him around I just knew he was scared, he had writing all over his shell. He had clearly been someone's pet and he either had broke free or someone didn't want him anymore and set him free. It was certainly not like any "turtle" I had ever seen. So someone in the crowd said they were taking him because his friend loved turtle soup and was basically going to kill and eat him and my husband said no we are taking him and we got a box and basically just left with him. Leaving with him was completely unplanned but we weren't going to just let someone kill and eat him and also he seemed really scared.
It has been a few months now and I absolutely love him. I never thought I would bond with a reptile like a cat or dog but I have. I am still trying to learn as much as possible about him and doing the best we can to give him the best care possible. After searching pictures I discovered he is an African Sulcata. We believe he is around 2-3 years old as he is about 10 lbs and a foot long. When we got him he had paint all over his shell and what appeared to be some pyramiding. We got the paint off his shell and after researching made his diet, soaking, and sunlight the biggest priority. I have tried to cover all the bases from UVB lights to calcium supplements, substrates, grass diet, soaking every other day etc. It appears in all that his shell health I overlooked. I noticed today a small, I'm not sure if "crack" is the right word in his plastron. I searched shell rot on this forum and I think it may be that or a fungus. I added a picture of what his shell looks like. I am very open to suggestions but please be kind as we are still trying to reverse whatever care was given to him before we found him which we think was very minimal. Thank you and I look forward to using this forum more.
This is my first post on this forum as I am a rather new tortoise owner. I came to have a tortoise unexpectedly. My husband and I are avid animal lovers. My husband got a call from a friend about a tortoise at a golf course he plays at. The tortoise ( now known as Herb) was in the middle of the fairway walking around. In the picture he looked huge like 100+ pounds. When my husband and I saw the picture we thought wow! so we went up to the golf course to see him. Besides a zoo I have never been around reptiles much less a tortoise. When we got there we realized the picture was a bit misleading as he was much smaller. There were many people crowded around him passing him around I just knew he was scared, he had writing all over his shell. He had clearly been someone's pet and he either had broke free or someone didn't want him anymore and set him free. It was certainly not like any "turtle" I had ever seen. So someone in the crowd said they were taking him because his friend loved turtle soup and was basically going to kill and eat him and my husband said no we are taking him and we got a box and basically just left with him. Leaving with him was completely unplanned but we weren't going to just let someone kill and eat him and also he seemed really scared.
It has been a few months now and I absolutely love him. I never thought I would bond with a reptile like a cat or dog but I have. I am still trying to learn as much as possible about him and doing the best we can to give him the best care possible. After searching pictures I discovered he is an African Sulcata. We believe he is around 2-3 years old as he is about 10 lbs and a foot long. When we got him he had paint all over his shell and what appeared to be some pyramiding. We got the paint off his shell and after researching made his diet, soaking, and sunlight the biggest priority. I have tried to cover all the bases from UVB lights to calcium supplements, substrates, grass diet, soaking every other day etc. It appears in all that his shell health I overlooked. I noticed today a small, I'm not sure if "crack" is the right word in his plastron. I searched shell rot on this forum and I think it may be that or a fungus. I added a picture of what his shell looks like. I am very open to suggestions but please be kind as we are still trying to reverse whatever care was given to him before we found him which we think was very minimal. Thank you and I look forward to using this forum more.
All that I see in this pic are growth lines....is there a specific "spot" you are concerned with? May we see a top side picture and of his face?
