Whites of eyes, not white...

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anniiie321

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Hello,
I have a Redfoot tortoise named Lucy, about 3 years old now. She has been doing alot of growing in the past few months and I have noticed her eyes have gotten alot darker.. What concerns me is that the 'whites' of her eyes are very grey now. I didn't know if this was normal or due to a vitamin deficiency or something else? I was doing some snooping on the forum and saw that sometimes the lighting in the enclosure could be a problem? She has one coil UVB bulb, 8.0 UVB and one halogen heat lamp. I have heard mixed things about the UVB (whether they need it or not). I dont know if this is the problem.. Here are two pictures that show her eyes quite well. I just want to know if it is normal or not and if not, what can i do?
eyes.jpg
 
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Madkins007

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OK, lets sort through this bit by bit.

ALL animals need vitamin D. Most get it by processing sunlight in the skin, but some get it from diet. Red-foots, like most tortoises, generally get it through the skin. Real sunlight is better than any bulb, then mercury vapor UVB bulbs are the next best, then straight fluorescent UVB bulbs (although some doubt they do much), then coiled bulbs. The concern about coiled bulbs is that the design allows a tightly focused 'ray' of UVB in the end. If it was bothering your animal, the eyes would look sunburned. You can also provide vitamin D as a supplement to the diet, although again- some people wonder if it helps.

If you look at Red-foot photos here and online, you will notice that a lot of them do not have visible whites. I do not think this is any big deal for your guy, but I would listen to any advice someone with more hands-on experience than I have says.
 

Geochelone_Carbonaria

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Personally I wouldn't worry that much about this, if the eyes does look ok apart from that I mean ? If they would have been swollen, irritated or runny, I would consider something in the environment or some kind of disease/illness, but not just because the "white" isn't white or have changed colour.

Mark, how does a sunburned RF eye look like, by the way ?

This is my latest girl and she is 14 years old. As you can see, there is hardly any difference between the white and the rest of her eye ?

Sarabi_6.JPG
 
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GeoTerraTestudo

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Humans are really the only animal with visible sclera (whites) in their eyes. This is thought to convey information to other people regarding in which direction a person is looking. Other animals lack this fine-tuned information system, and so keep their sclera concealed. The sclera might be revealed occasionally when the animal's eyes are moving, but at rest they are usually covered up.
 

Geochelone_Carbonaria

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GeoTerraTestudo said:
Humans are really the only animal with visible sclera (whites) in their eyes. This is thought to convey information to other people regarding in which direction a person is looking. Other animals lack this fine-tuned information system, and so keep their sclera concealed.

Really interesting, I wasn't aware of this at all ! Is this common knowledge, and something I should know about ? I'm not kidding, I've just never heard about it before, and it's just fantastic to hear !
 

GeoTerraTestudo

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Geochelone_Carbonaria said:
Really interesting, I wasn't aware of this at all ! Is this common knowledge, and something I should know about ? I'm not kidding, I've just never heard about it before, and it's just fantastic to hear!

A paper came out only a few years ago (2007) demonstrating this. Here's the reference below. The paper is attached to this message as a PDF.

Michael Tomasello, Brian Hare, Hagen Lehmann, and Josep Call. 2007. Reliance on head versus eyes in the gaze following of great apes and human infants: the cooperative eye hypothesis. Journal of Human Evolution 52: 314-320. http://www.chrisknight.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/eyes-cooperation.pdf

As for the redfoot tortoise in the photos above, I think it looks quite healthy. :)
 

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Madkins007

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Geochelone_Carbonaria said:
Mark, how does a sunburned RF eye look like, by the way ?

dry, irritated, tearing/blinking
 

anniiie321

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Thank you everyone for the posts :) This is why I belong to the forum, so I can ask questions and make sure everything is going well with little Lucy! Thanks again!
 

matt41gb

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Isn't it funny how the majority of females have a dark sclera? I believe I've already touched on this subject. :)

-Matt
 

Geochelone_Carbonaria

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matt41gb said:
Isn't it funny how the majority of females have a dark sclera? I believe I've already touched on this subject. :)

-Matt

Yes you have, and it's still under my skin ever since I read that post of yours, so everytime I see a new RF female I have to check if that applies for it... :D
 
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