Tortoise Healthy?

yay14

Active Member
Joined
Aug 8, 2020
Messages
255
Location (City and/or State)
stockholm
Hi everybody i have a 1 year 1 month old Hermanns tortoise i just wanted to go thru and see if you think hes healthy or not.
When i first got him in may 2020 when he was 5 months there were a lot of problems with my care, it was to dry, the light was poorly setup so not all the uv from the light did got in the enclosure, he was getting to much supplemnt such as calcium and d3 and i am not sure if his diet was tip top. Then during the summer one month after i got the tort he was kept outside so lighting was not a problem but he still was almost only fed dandelion greens and flowers and some other weeds but not enough variety. Another problem is that he was not reguarly soaked or almost at all in the beggining until Septemeber becuse i was not well educated. So when September rolls around when he starts living inside again i fixed a lot of thing with my care i started soaking daily the indoor lighting was fixed i lowered the amount of suplementing and improved his diet the only real problem that was left was that it was to dry in the enclosure.
Later in early november i took him to the vet and the vet said that he looked perfectly healthy. Fast forward to Januari i finally covered his enclosure so now The humidity is good. The only thing that could have made his health worst since the Vet appointment in November where the vet said the tort was perfectly healthy was lack of humidity, but that is fixed now.
The only small concern i have is that his shell still has some slight give whare the yolc sac used to be otherwise his shell is almost completely hard.
But anyway with this in mind Do you guys think hes healthy?

He currently waighs 49 grams and acts completely healthy nothing points at him being sick, his eyes are clear, his nose is clear and he does not have anything weird i his mouth. He has a good apetite and seems to be strong in his legs.

He did get some gritty urates twice the first was in october but that time was fixed and the second time was in dember so i am currently working on fixing that but apart from that everything seems good.

His lighting is a 50watt HID spot lmap and a dayligt tubes. I know spot is not the best but it's what i have

Heres some pics of the tort and the enclosure.
 

Attachments

  • 666.jpg
    666.jpg
    61.4 KB · Views: 23
  • 133.jpg
    133.jpg
    45.3 KB · Views: 22
  • 333.jpg
    333.jpg
    42.8 KB · Views: 22
  • 444.jpg
    444.jpg
    42.7 KB · Views: 22
  • 555.jpg
    555.jpg
    60.7 KB · Views: 23
  • jj.jpg
    jj.jpg
    1.2 MB · Views: 20
Last edited:

Yossarian

Well-Known Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Nov 21, 2015
Messages
813
Location (City and/or State)
Wales
I dont see anything to worry about. The torts plastron will always have a little bit of flexibility to it, it should not be spongey or soft like a ripe fruit. If the vet said it was healthy then I would worry about the shell being properly hard.
 

yay14

Active Member
Joined
Aug 8, 2020
Messages
255
Location (City and/or State)
stockholm
I dont see anything to worry about. The torts plastron will always have a little bit of flexibility to it, it should not be spongey or soft like a ripe fruit. If the vet said it was healthy then I would worry about the shell being properly hard.
Ok thank you so much for the replie:tort:
 

yay14

Active Member
Joined
Aug 8, 2020
Messages
255
Location (City and/or State)
stockholm
I dont see anything to worry about. The torts plastron will always have a little bit of flexibility to it, it should not be spongey or soft like a ripe fruit. If the vet said it was healthy then I would worry about the shell being properly hard.
So even though he was pretty much not soaked for the first 4 months of owning him so from when he was 5 months old to 9 months old everything should be good now?
 

Yossarian

Well-Known Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Nov 21, 2015
Messages
813
Location (City and/or State)
Wales
So even though he was pretty much not soaked for the first 4 months of owning him so from when he was 5 months old to 9 months old everything should be good now?

I cant tell you the future, how a tort is reared early on can have health consequences later but they are hardy animals and in the wild they can survive in some very harsh conditions. If the tort is healthy and eating and gaining weight, and you are providing the right conditions from now on, there is no reason to worry.
 

yay14

Active Member
Joined
Aug 8, 2020
Messages
255
Location (City and/or State)
stockholm
I cant tell you the future, how a tort is reared early on can have health consequences later but they are hardy animals and in the wild they can survive in some very harsh conditions. If the tort is healthy and eating and gaining weight, and you are providing the right conditions from now on, there is no reason to worry.
Okey thanks :)
 

TeamZissou

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 23, 2020
Messages
1,048
Location (City and/or State)
Albuquerque, NM
What are the tortoise laws like in Sweden? I remember seeing that in Norway you have to have a doctor's note saying that you have allergies and can't have a dog or cat. Even then, only Testudos are allowed.
 

yay14

Active Member
Joined
Aug 8, 2020
Messages
255
Location (City and/or State)
stockholm
What are the tortoise laws like in Sweden? I remember seeing that in Norway you have to have a doctor's note saying that you have allergies and can't have a dog or cat. Even then, only Testudos are allowed.
They are definatly looser in Sweden than Norway. I am not super educated but i think as long as you have a CITES document it's good for testudo species.
 

yay14

Active Member
Joined
Aug 8, 2020
Messages
255
Location (City and/or State)
stockholm
I cant tell you the future, how a tort is reared early on can have health consequences later but they are hardy animals and in the wild they can survive in some very harsh conditions. If the tort is healthy and eating and gaining weight, and you are providing the right conditions from now on, there is no reason to worry.
His carpace also feels a bit firm like not rock hard but you cant really push it in like with the plastron
 

yay14

Active Member
Joined
Aug 8, 2020
Messages
255
Location (City and/or State)
stockholm
I cant tell you the future, how a tort is reared early on can have health consequences later but they are hardy animals and in the wild they can survive in some very harsh conditions. If the tort is healthy and eating and gaining weight, and you are providing the right conditions from now on, there is no reason to worry.
You can maybe push the carpace in ever so slighly at the bottom of the carpace but almost not at all if even at all. You can push back and forward at that little area at the bottom where the shell is really thin whare to carpace and plastron connect i guess you could describe it though.
 

Krista S

Well-Known Member
Platinum Tortoise Club
Joined
Aug 4, 2019
Messages
1,364
Location (City and/or State)
Saskatchewan
Hi everybody i have a 1 year 1 month old Hermanns tortoise i just wanted to go thru and see if you think hes healthy or not.
When i first got him in may 2020 when he was 5 months there were a lot of problems with my care, it was to dry, the light was poorly setup so not all the uv from the light did got in the enclosure, he was getting to much supplemnt such as calcium and d3 and i am not sure if his diet was tip top. Then during the summer one month after i got the tort he was kept outside so lighting was not a problem but he still was almost only fed dandelion greens and flowers and some other weeds but not enough variety. Another problem is that he was not reguarly soaked or almost at all in the beggining until Septemeber becuse i was not well educated. So when September rolls around when he starts living inside again i fixed a lot of thing with my care i started soaking daily the indoor lighting was fixed i lowered the amount of suplementing and improved his diet the only real problem that was left was that it was to dry in the enclosure.
Later in early november i took him to the vet and the vet said that he looked perfectly healthy. Fast forward to Januari i finally covered his enclosure so now The humidity is good. The only thing that could have made his health worst since the Vet appointment in November where the vet said the tort was perfectly healthy was lack of humidity, but that is fixed now.
The only small concern i have is that his shell still has some slight give whare the yolc sac used to be otherwise his shell is almost completely hard.
But anyway with this in mind Do you guys think hes healthy?

He currently waighs 49 grams and acts completely healthy nothing points at him being sick, his eyes are clear, his nose is clear and he does not have anything weird i his mouth. He has a good apetite and seems to be strong in his legs.

He did get some gritty urates twice the first was in october but that time was fixed and the second time was in dember so i am currently working on fixing that but apart from that everything seems good.

His lighting is a 50watt HID spot lmap and a dayligt tubes. I know spot is not the best but it's what i have

Heres some pics of the tort and the enclosure.
It sounds like your care is decent, but 49 grams is abnormally small for being over 1 year old. I know they all grow at different rates, but my Hermann’s weighed this much at about 5 months old. How much did he weigh when you got him? Is his weight consistently increasing or does he seem stuck around 50 grams?
 

yay14

Active Member
Joined
Aug 8, 2020
Messages
255
Location (City and/or State)
stockholm
It sounds like your care is decent, but 49 grams is abnormally small for being over 1 year old. I know they all grow at different rates, but my Hermann’s weighed this much at about 5 months old. How much did he weigh when you got him? Is his weight consistently increasing or does he seem stuck around 50 grams?
not sure how much he weighed when i got him but i did some searching and 49 grams seems pretty normal for a one year old.
 

yay14

Active Member
Joined
Aug 8, 2020
Messages
255
Location (City and/or State)
stockholm
Where did you read that?

50 g seems small to me as well. My 6 month old Greek weighs 70 g
I weighed him just now becuse we were talking about it and it only said he weighed 42 i am scared he has lost weight but i am not sure since the scale i use is a little weird and registers 400 grams just by putting it down without anything even touching it.
 
Last edited:

TeamZissou

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 23, 2020
Messages
1,048
Location (City and/or State)
Albuquerque, NM
The Jackson Ratio is used more to know if a tortoise is underweight for its size, which is an indicator if it's healthy or otherwise dehydrated. It's basically a measure of density of the tortoise.

It's good that your tortoise is OK according to the Jackson Ratio, but that doesn't say anything about the growth rate.

Ultimately its probably OK if it's small for it's age. This is most likely an indicator that it wasn't receiving optimal conditions for the first year. Now that you have dialed in the setup, it should start picking up weight again.
 
Top