Recent content by zovick

  1. zovick

    Strange white material on box turtles back stump

    To me, it looks as though the leg skin may have been abraded against the marginal scutes, possibly when the predator was biting the foot off, or perhaps afterwards since with the foot missing, the leg may rub on the shell more than it did when the whole leg was intact. I don't really see...
  2. zovick

    Newbie - Advice Appreciated!

    Burmese Star Tortoises do well in GA. So do Radiated Tortoises. Adult Burmese Stars can reach over 12" in length; adult Radiated Tortoises are even larger and can reach 16"-17". Both species are fairly cold tolerant. I left my adult specimens of both species outdoors day and night in Dacula, GA...
  3. zovick

    4 month old Hermann's sleeping more, eating less, and shell is soft

    Mercury Vapor bulbs (MVB's) are not recommended for tortoises. I would replace it with a linear tube fluorescent for UV such as a Reptisun T5 10.0 or a comparable Arcadia tube fluorescent bulb. Also the open top table is not ideal as mentioned above by Raquel1978. Good luck.
  4. zovick

    Shell Health

    As Sarah2020 said, those little lines are normal and not harmful or problematic. No one seems to know what causes them, but many healthy tortoises have them. I would guess that the spots on the first tortoise are probably caused by the same thing as the little white lines. They are both...
  5. zovick

    Red vs Yellow Footed Tortoise

    They are totally different species from each other, not just different colored animals of the same species. Besides being colored differently Yellow-foot adults can also get much larger than Red-foot adults.
  6. zovick

    Not walking

    It sounds as though this could be a bad reaction to being anesthetized. Hopefully the tortoise wasn't injured somehow during the beak trimming, but either way, it could take quite a long time to get better (and here I mean several weeks or even months rather than days). Hopefully it will go...
  7. zovick

    My talia the tortoise is not well

    That is great news. Glad you were able (and willing) to make the necessary improvements for the tortoise!
  8. zovick

    Shell Health

    Those spots look fairly normal to me (assuming I am properly interpreting what you mean).
  9. zovick

    Need A Wonderful New Parent for Baby Sulcata--Utah

    Sounds fine. Best of luck with the process!
  10. zovick

    Box turtle eggs denting in on day 54, help!!

    OK, now it is much easier to understand why you aren't sure of the lineage. My first step would be to ask the person from whom you obtained the female if the turtle had ever been paired with any other Box Turtle species/subspecies while in his/her possession. Female Box Turtles are said to be...
  11. zovick

    Need A Wonderful New Parent for Baby Sulcata--Utah

    Where are you dropping off the package? All you need to do is ask the live person who takes it from you if it will get on that night's FEDEX flight to their hub and be delivered the next day. If they say yes, you are good to go. If they say no, those overnight packages have already been sent to...
  12. zovick

    I'm back! And I have a surprise!

    There are additional abnormal scutes on both sides of the tortoise at the rear of each row of costal scutes, so the tortoise has two abnormal scutes on the left side and one on the right. The problem is mainly cosmetic and could lead to a misshapen adult animal. The tortoise's health is not...
  13. zovick

    Box turtle eggs denting in on day 54, help!!

    Congrats on hatching the babies! I have to admit that I am a bit confused by your wondering if these babies are intergrades or not. If you produced these babies, don't you know if they are intergrades or not? What are the possible parent species or subspecies of which the babies could be...
  14. zovick

    I'm back! And I have a surprise!

    Not trying to rain on the parade, just making sure you are aware of the abnormality which is visible in this photo. That tortoise has an extra or split first left costal scute and that may make the tortoise grow asymmetrically. Sometimes the asymmetry becomes more pronounced as they get older...
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