Tortoise check-up

[jackapple]

Hi everyone

So over a year ago my tortoise had a little crack in his shell. Yvonne mentioned that I should expect to see that the whole scute will fall off and to not be too concerned about it. One issue though is it looks like the bone? underneath looks odd. It's the anterior vertebral scutes. I am wondering if it's an issue? I had a vet way back when but he was abysmal and I am struggling to find a vet who has any experience with tortoises in my city, which is insane since it has a vet college.

Also I noticed his growth lines are MASSIVE which is really concerning.

Basically I am just wondering how concerned I should be with those growth lines, and that cracked scute?
He is otherwise very playful (he climbs EVERYTHING all the time). Poops regularly, wide-eyed, and loves to eat. To be honest I have never been really sure how much he should be eating and fear I am over feeding.
-I give him probably a solid handful of greens or whatever, every day. He doesn't eat it all, usually only half of it.

Any help is very appreciated as always!

Here are some of his stats:
Weight: ~500 g
length: ~ 6 inches (measured while upside down)
Warm temp of enclosure: 31-32 C
Cool temp: ~24
Diet: mix of collards, chard, arugula, endive, dandelion. Often I take some cuttle bone and shave off some of it onto the food, and also leave a large piece for him to bite on (he rarely does).
Soakings: he's soaked every few days
Substrate: 70% top soil, 30% sand (as i change out the substrate i am replacing it with 100% top soil)
UV lamp: 10% Exoterra coil bulb ~ 13 inches above basking area (I heard these are not desirable, and will be looking into buying the tube bulb)
Heating bulb: zilla 75 watt basking lamp
Enclosure: lots of slate to bask on, stones to climb, and a hidey hole where he tends to sleep or hide under to cool off.

 

[Yvonne G]

You're correct, that white spot IS bone - dead bone. And new bone and keratin is growing UNDER that white spot. Eventually, because the dead bone is static, and the new growth under it will be BIGGER, the dead bone will pop off. The new keratin doesn't look exactly like the existing stuff, but it all comes right in the end.

Sometimes new growth looks a bit uneven, with wider spaces on one side or the other. This is because in order to keep the silhouette looking like it should, one side may grow more than the other. In my opinion, your new growth lines just look like the tortoise is being well fed.

His beak is a bit long, though. Do you feed him on a rough piece of cement or slate? And don't cut up his food. Make him bite off pieces.

 

[jackapple]

You're correct, that white spot IS bone - dead bone. And new bone and keratin is growing UNDER that white spot. Eventually, because the dead bone is static, and the new growth under it will be BIGGER, the dead bone will pop off. The new keratin doesn't look exactly like the existing stuff, but it all comes right in the end.

Sometimes new growth looks a bit uneven, with wider spaces on one side or the other. This is because in order to keep the silhouette looking like it should, one side may grow more than the other. In my opinion, your new growth lines just look like the tortoise is being well fed.

His beak is a bit long, though. Do you feed him on a rough piece of cement or slate? And don't cut up his food. Make him bite off pieces.

Hi Yvonne!

Thanks so much for the response, I definitely feel better about it.

I feed him on slate, but i can buy a piece of cement instead if you think that will help with his beak.
I often don't cut up his food except for collards since the stem part is really tough and he always looks like he is going to choke on it, so i slice that up.
I tried to file his beak down myself but failed. I tried finding a vet who would do it but the only one I could find said it would cost 100+ dollars (I am but a lowly student)

 

[CanadianTestudo]

once the beak is overgrown it wont go back down unless it gets trimmed, the rough slate will only help with future beak problems. I'm a student too, but our pets are exotic and expensive and require our care so you might need to save up the money (or maybe someone on here can give you detailed instructions?).