# My tortoise's shell has translucent, thin borders in certain areas. Is this a sign of bad health?



## Gandalf the Turtle (Feb 22, 2018)

Hello there fellow humans!

I don't know whether this is normal, but my shell has some areas where the border is translucent; almost gelatin-like, and I don't know if this is normal. Does it mean I'm in bad health? 

I eat greens every day. The only thing I don't eat are carrots (source of vitamin A) because I don't eat them (for whatever reason), tomatoes and other greens my human eats because I heard they're unhealthy for me. 

I get bathed every few days, and my human tries to maintain the humidity of the table between 50% (when he's at work, he can't spray water in the tank so the humidity is lower) and 85%. I'd say the average humidity when he's at home is between 65% and 80%. 

I'm a Hermann's tortoise born in 2016; I don't know my birthday, but I'm guessing I'm around a year old. Is the shell alright or am I suffering from some sort of issue my human isn't aware of?

Cheers,
Gandalf


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## Gandalf the Turtle (Feb 22, 2018)

Yes I'm also aware that my nails are long, but I don't like having them cut and my substrate is mainly dirt without many pebbles and whatnot. Also, the number on my shell was written by the stupid vendor who gave my human my adoption papers. My human does his best trying to gently scrub it off with every bath I take but so far I've barely noticed a difference.

Cheers!


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## WithLisa (Feb 22, 2018)

Shell and nails seem totally normal to me.


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## Yvonne G (Feb 22, 2018)

It's perfectly normal for the very edges of the shell to be translucent.


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## TammyJ (Feb 22, 2018)

You're so beautiful my shell is turning green with envy.


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## Loohan (Feb 22, 2018)

Dark leafy greens also contain a lot of carotenoids (Vitamin A).


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## Bee62 (Feb 24, 2018)

Hello Gandalf. You should not be worried about your shell. You are still young and growing and the transcendent edges of your shell is new grown shell. 
Live long and happy, little tortoise.


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