Heroes In Halfshells
New Member
- Joined
- Jun 24, 2015
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A Wonky Tortoise - Growth
- Thread starter Heroes In Halfshells
- Start date
I think this little one could use a good regular dose of calcium in his diet with a proper diet and regular exposure to unfiltered sunlight.
Hi, and welcome to the Forum!
It's obvious you love your tortoise, but suffered from either the incorrect information or just not knowing the correct way to house a baby leopard tortoise.
His wonky growth stems from lack of humidity, wrong diet, and like the cowboy said, either real or artificial sunshine.
There are several things required for even, smooth growth resulting in a healthy tortoise - humidity (when in their first year), exercise, varied diet, UVB from either the sun or a good UVB light and calcium. It also looks like the soft parts (legs, head) are growing faster/bigger than the shell. This might be due to lack of calcium, but I'm not sure on that.
He may not be perfect, but he's awfully cute, and I'm sure he has a spot in your heart that would feel mighty empty should he not be there anymore. Sometimes its the wonky ones that we love the most!
I notice on the left front that two of the scutes seem to be fused together. The next time I get one with fused scutes, I'm going to try (over time) rubbing the seam between the two with a Q-tip dipped in coconut oil to see if it helps the scutes to separate. We're all still learning. All we can do is give it our best shot.
It's obvious you love your tortoise, but suffered from either the incorrect information or just not knowing the correct way to house a baby leopard tortoise.
His wonky growth stems from lack of humidity, wrong diet, and like the cowboy said, either real or artificial sunshine.
There are several things required for even, smooth growth resulting in a healthy tortoise - humidity (when in their first year), exercise, varied diet, UVB from either the sun or a good UVB light and calcium. It also looks like the soft parts (legs, head) are growing faster/bigger than the shell. This might be due to lack of calcium, but I'm not sure on that.
He may not be perfect, but he's awfully cute, and I'm sure he has a spot in your heart that would feel mighty empty should he not be there anymore. Sometimes its the wonky ones that we love the most!
I notice on the left front that two of the scutes seem to be fused together. The next time I get one with fused scutes, I'm going to try (over time) rubbing the seam between the two with a Q-tip dipped in coconut oil to see if it helps the scutes to separate. We're all still learning. All we can do is give it our best shot.
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