# Is this normal for a Desert Tortoise?



## Juniper619 (May 9, 2021)

Hi Everyone,
I just started noticing dark circles forming in each scute. Will you please look at the pics and let me know if I did something wrong? I adopted him about a year ago. I was going through some older pics and I can see the dark pattern starting to form. The top pic was taken today and the bottom pic was taken the day I found him in my backyard.
Any advice will be greatly appreciated. Thank you all.
View attachment 324811
View attachment 324812


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## TheTattooedTortoise (May 10, 2021)

To be fair he looks happy, healthy and smooth to me... you'll probably just find that his natural colouring is becoming richer. 
Certainly doesn't look like anything to worry about to me (shell rot, fungus etc)


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## KarenSoCal (May 10, 2021)

It's just normal coloring as he grows.
This was my desert tort. Zoom in and you can see dark circles on his scutes.


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## Juniper619 (May 10, 2021)

TheTattooedTortoise said:


> To be fair he looks happy, healthy and smooth to me... you'll probably just find that his natural colouring is becoming richer.
> Certainly doesn't look like anything to worry about to me (shell rot, fungus etc)


Thank you so much! I was worried that I didn’t give him enough food rich in vitamins.


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## Tom (May 10, 2021)

Juniper619 said:


> View attachment 324813
> View attachment 324814
> 
> Hi Everyone,
> ...


I don't know what care you are offering, but he looks pretty good. Hydration is super important. Daily soak will help until he gets a little bigger.

In both pics I see lettuce. That's not good. Avoid grocery store foods in favor of leaves, weeds, flowers and spineless opuntia pads. Add in some Mazuri, mix in some soaked ZooMed pellets and you should have a good diet. Look for mulberry trees in your area, grape vines, rose of sharon, lavatera, etc...

If you must use grocery store greens, favor endive and escarole. Add in cilantro, arugula, collard, mustard and turnip greens, and more. Mix in some soaked horse hay pellets, herbal hay from tortoisesupply.com and oe of several types of dried leaves from kapidolofarms.com.

Here is the current and correct care info for this species:





The Best Way To Raise Any Temperate Species Of Tortoise


I chose the title of this care sheet very carefully. Are there other ways to raise babies and care for adults? Yes. Yes there are, but those ways are not as good. What follows is the BEST way, according to 30 years of research and experimentation with hundreds of babies of many species. What is...




tortoiseforum.org


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## Juniper619 (May 10, 2021)

Tom said:


> I don't know what care you are offering, but he looks pretty good. Hydration is super important. Daily soak will help until he gets a little bigger.
> 
> In both pics I see lettuce. That's not good. Avoid grocery store foods in favor of leaves, weeds, flowers and spineless opuntia pads. Add in some Mazuri, mix in some soaked ZooMed pellets and you should have a good diet. Look for mulberry trees in your area, grape vines, rose of sharon, lavatera, etc...
> 
> ...


Thank you for the advice. I switch up between pellets, green/red leaf lettuce, dandelion leaves and flowers, cucumbers, endives and spinach. I started growing a little patch of grass ... once it grows a few inches I’ll transfer it into his enclosure.


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## Juniper619 (May 10, 2021)

KarenSoCal said:


> It's just normal coloring as he grows.
> This was my desert tort. Zoom in and you can see dark circles on his scutes.
> 
> View attachment 324823





KarenSoCal said:


> It's just normal coloring as he grows.
> This was my desert tort. Zoom in and you can see dark circles on his scutes.
> 
> View attachment 324823


Thank you for sharing this pic of your tort. It makes me feel a lot better. ?


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## zovick (May 10, 2021)

Juniper619 said:


> View attachment 324813
> View attachment 324814
> 
> Hi Everyone,
> ...


The darker areas around the outside of the scutes are the new growth lines. You can see the same darker coloration of new growth on the scutes of sulcata tortoises as they grow also.


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