# Skin peeling...



## desertsss (Apr 9, 2009)

So my smaller tort Twitch is peeling around the neck. I read in a past thread to not pull the skin off. This is kind of wierd though, the whole top of his neck is peeling at once kind of like a snake shedding. I do believe that since they are experiencing better care they might be going through a growth spurt. They have been eating like crazy. So my question is...is it odd for them to shed that much skin at once?
Does this mean they are dehydrated? I will post a pic tomorrow if it will help, they are tucked away for the night.


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## Crazy1 (Apr 9, 2009)

desertsss, it is not unusual for torts to peel however a pic would help give us a better idea of what is going on and extra soaking might help with the peeling skin.


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## desertsss (Apr 9, 2009)

Here are some pics of twitch, I hope they are slear enough for you to see. 






















Yah, those turned out a little blurry. Sorry. In the first pic Twitch is the one on the bottom and you can see a little how his neck is layered almost but it is the skin peeling.


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## Maggie Cummings (Apr 9, 2009)

Altho those are really blurry pictures ... I can tell you that I had a favored Gopherus agassizii who shed just like that. So I'd wait and wait for that skin to come off. One day I just said the heck with it and pulled the skin off...and it bled and bled. So, don't pull the skin off, it will fall off in it's own in time. Make sure that their habitat is humid and they are both well hydrated and they will be fine...both look really dry as does the substrate. Are you keeping the soil moist? Are you soaking them everyday? I moisten the soil everyday. In the wild they make long burrows, then they poop and pee in there creating ambient humidity. In their habitats in captivity they can't do that, so as their keeper it's up to you to keep the humidity up...


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## tortoisenerd (Apr 9, 2009)

My little guy was peeling worse than that. It took some time, but then over the course of two days it all cleared up in a soak.


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