# Deformed Turtles and Tortoises



## Yvonne G

I was looking through the rescues I've taken in over the years and thought you all might be interested in seeing some of the deformed animals that came my way. If you have deformed animal pictures, please feel free to add them to this thread. The water turtle in the 4th, 5th and 6th pictures was the worst one I've ever taken in.


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## dmmj

Ptetty sad, but what's sadder is some people think they are supposed to look like that. smh


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## Pearly

Yvonne G said:


> I was looking through the rescues I've taken in over the years and thought you all might be interested in seeing some of the deformed animals that came my way. If you have deformed animal pictures, please feel free to add them to this thread. The water turtle in the 4th, 5th and 6th pictures was the worst one I've ever taken in.
> 
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That makes me feel like crying


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## Toddrickfl1

Good Lord look at that slider! That's terrible, but it also shows just how tough these critters are.


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## BeeBee*BeeLeaves

Poor babies. Depressing. But educational to see. Sigh.


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## Yvonne G

BeeBee*BeeLeaves said:


> Poor babies. Depressing. But educational to see. Sigh.


The bad part is all these people thought they were doing right by their pets. They just didn't know the correct way to tend them and made no attempt to educate themselves.


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## LaLaP

Wow. That's hard to see. Glad they got rescued. Did you find good homes for them or keep them?


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## Yvonne G

LaLaP said:


> Wow. That's hard to see. Glad they got rescued. Did you find good homes for them or keep them?


Oh no, I didn't keep the rescues. They got adopted out to good homes.


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## ZEROPILOT

It's been my experience that most deformed turtles and tortoises I come across are owned by keepers unwilling to do things because of inconvenience or some small cost that they don't want.
These folks generally don't care much.
It's "just a turtle".
Too many people want these as pets on a whim without ever being serious about the long term.
Or caring for very long.


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## Professor Brenda

Yvonne G said:


> The bad part is all these people thought they were doing right by their pets. They just didn't know the correct way to tend them and made no attempt to educate themselves.


NO excuse for the lack of education these days with all the answers at our fingertips. Sad


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## Ben02

Here’s a rescue Sulcata at a college near me, not as bad as the ones you have seen Yvonne.


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## Turbo'smom

Yvonne, As you probably know I have been trying to find a good home for Turbo since I moved into a small townhouse in NC. I need to know how I can trust these people that are interested. When you adopt yours out what do you ask them. I want to make sure they are not going to just turn around and sell him to the highest bidder. Thanks


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## dmmj

Toddrickfl1 said:


> Good Lord look at that slider! That's terrible, but it also shows just how tough these critters are.


That is the blessing\curse of turtles & tortoises


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## Yvonne G

Turbo'smom said:


> Yvonne, As you probably know I have been trying to find a good home for Turbo since I moved into a small townhouse in NC. I need to know how I can trust these people that are interested. When you adopt yours out what do you ask them. I want to make sure they are not going to just turn around and sell him to the highest bidder. Thanks


Deformed turtles and tortoises have a their own niche in the human field. People that want the deformed animals WANT them. They don't want to sell them. But I treat them as I do (or rather did, because I don't do rescue anymore) all the animals up for adoption. I go to the person's house and take a look at the space they have set aside for the turtle/tortoise. I make sure it's a safe place for the animal to live. And while we're walking around, looking at the yard, I'm getting a feel for the person and their knowledge and enthusiasm for having the animal. If I'm adopting out a deformed animal I make sure the person understands the tortoise may have special needs, may not have a long life span, etc. I'm a pretty good judge of character and if I don't feel this is the right match for the animal I tell them so.


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## Heckhaven

I run a Wildlife Center , And can say for Fact - Mother Nature also can screw-up at times. 
But, many people see an animal and just have got to have it. But, they never bother to read up on what is involved with the care. So the poor animal suffers. 
Thank you for taking in and caring for them. 
You are very Special.


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## Cowboy_Ken

These folks thought they had a “special” tortoise


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## dmmj

Cowboy_Ken said:


> These folks thought they had a “special” tortoise
> View attachment 273299


They do now


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## Yvonne G

These following pictures are from the web:


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## chia6000

I am assuming that they will be like this forever ,but can you get the turtles and tortoises back to a healthy/ normallish appearance after they have gotten this bad? Or, once the shell grows that way, there is no turning back?


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## Tort baby momma

I obviously note the pyramiding but what led to the other issues? Were they fed dog food or other very inappropriate diets?


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## Cowboy_Ken

dmmj said:


> They do now



When I took this one in, I excepted the understanding that it would be like this for life. I was in an automobile induced coma for awhile and while there he and many other tortoises of mine were relieved from me, so unfortunately, I can’t give y’all a solid answer.


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## Yvonne G

chia6000 said:


> I am assuming that they will be like this forever ,but can you get the turtles and tortoises back to a healthy/ normallish appearance after they have gotten this bad? Or, once the shell grows that way, there is no turning back?


No, they will never grow back to 'normal.'


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## Yvonne G

Tort baby momma said:


> I obviously note the pyramiding but what led to the other issues? Were they fed dog food or other very inappropriate diets?


Various causes - lack of UVB, diet, small enclosure, temperature, etc.


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## Turbo'smom

The people I gave turbo to had a 120 pound Sulcata that they rescued from a fire. He has no claws in any of his feet. So sad.


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## Sleppo

Thanks for sharing, mother nature can sure throw in some weird mutations but sadly most are the result of human ignorance.


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## Raymo2477

This is Clyde. I rescued him and he has a deformed shell, nails, and a deformed jaw, but a lot of personality. His original owner got as a hatchling and kept in a bathroom.


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## Yvonne G

BrookeB said:


> Frank when I got him, he was around 2-3 years old.. (2011) severe MBD and pyramiding, he also had kidney stones (the size of golfballs) he was the size of a dinnerplate and really flat for a sulcata. I was completely unsure if he would survive. He was kept inside whiteout uv and fed iceberg lettuce, he also was kept by someone who was under the impression that he would get all the water he needed from his food.
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> Him now
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Aw heck! I was anxious to see Frank's then and now pictures, but I get an error message and they won't open for me. Dang it!


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## BrookeB

Frank when I got him, he was around 2-3 years old.. (2011) severe MBD and pyramiding, he also had kidney stones (the size of golfballs) he was the size of a dinnerplate and really flat for a sulcata. I was completely unsure if he would survive. He was kept inside whiteout uv and fed iceberg lettuce, he also was kept by someone who was under the impression that he would get all the water he needed from his food.


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## Yvonne G

Oh wow. Frank should be called Stalagmite! My sister up in Oregon has a badly deformed sulcata too, but he's not nearly as bad as Frank.

Frank isn't in your signature. Just an oversight? or has he passed?


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## ZEROPILOT

This is my little deformed Redfoot thst6a was given by a teenage girl on Craigslist.
He has eye and facial deformities. But the most shocking part is that he is over 20 months old now. And he's the size of a 2 month old at best.


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## Professor Brenda

Yvonne G said:


> The bad part is all these people thought they were doing right by their pets. They just didn't know the correct way to tend them and made no attempt to educate themselves.


The fact that they made no attempt to educate themselves is ridiculous.


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## Cowboy_Ken

Professor Brenda said:


> The fact that they made no attempt to educate themselves is ridiculous.



And unfortunately to me I place the blame simply on “The System”.


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## BrookeB

Yvonne G said:


> Oh wow. Frank should be called Stalagmite! My sister up in Oregon has a badly deformed sulcata too, but he's not nearly as bad as Frank.
> 
> Frank isn't in your signature. Just an oversight? or has he passed?



Lol frank is Bertha... tortious sexing isn’t that easy [emoji849] and he is definitely still alive [emoji16]


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## Tortoisesarecool

Yvonne G said:


> These following pictures are from the web:
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These photos are so disturbing and sad no tortoise should look like this


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## Srmcclure

Does a deformed dog count?


This is my Dixie. She was born with her eyes not being fully developed. She can see 'shadows' out of her one eye. The other one is not sealed, just formed that way and as you can see her eyes are very small, with no real form... she was thrown out of a car and my customer pulled over and grabbed her out of the road before she was hit ( she saw the whole thing) 2 years later she gave her to me due to health issues. She walks around ok so long as you don't move the furniture around on her, but she does have seizures and they don't know if its from being thrown out of the car or if its linked to her eye issues


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