What is wrong with his shell?

[Mcgeo]

Hi all, new here. My Russian tortoise has come out of hibernation after 16 weeks and his shell looks very strange. Slightly worried as it doesn't look healthy to me. He has bright eyes and is pooing as usual. What is this and is it anything to worry about? Thanks.

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi, and welcome to the Forum!

What I'm seeing on this tortise is a captive bred tortoise that has been raised with a whole lot of food in dry conditions. The little 'mountains' you see on the carapace are due to a young tortoise that is eating a lot, and therefore growing a lot and is living in pretty dry conditions. We have recently (within the past three or four years) learned that young tortoises require a bit of humidity in order to grow smooth shells.

What you're seeing is not life threatening, but your baby surely would benefit from more moisture in his living conditions. Also, do you soak the little guy in room temperature water daily?

 

[Mcgeo]

Hi, and welcome to the Forum!

What I'm seeing on this tortise is a captive bred tortoise that has been raised with a whole lot of food in dry conditions. The little 'mountains' you see on the carapace are due to a young tortoise that is eating a lot, and therefore growing a lot and is living in pretty dry conditions. We have recently (within the past three years) learned that young tortoises require a bit of humidity in order to grow smooth shells.

What you're seeing is not life threatening, but your baby surely would benefit from more moisture in his living conditions. Also, do you soak the little guy in room temperature water daily?

Thanks for your reply. I don't bathe him every day, I bathe him once a week. Would it be okay to bathe him more often or would water on the dry patches hurt him? His shell has only looked like this since coming out of hibernation so I was worried it could be shell rot. I'm currently building him a new home to have more of a definate cold and hot end of his enclosure.

 

[Yvonne G]

No, it's not shell rot. Warm up his enclosure with a slight drop in temp at night, and moisten the substrate. Change your soaking to daily for about 15 minutes.