Bottom of sulcata shell soft?

[Aloysius Taschse]

Hi everyone,

My sulcata tortoise Kiwi has been doing great. She has a big personality and a large appetite, but today when I picked her up I could feel that the bottom of her shell was soft, almost like a plastic lid. I couldn't really find much information online and I've looked at other posts but haven't really found anything, so I figured it just might be best to start a new thread. Maybe it is shell rot or metabolic bone disease, but I am not an expert in this! The only thing that I think could cause this is that the rescuer (one her new females came in pregnant) did not give her a proper diet or calcium supplement. I do now and I also feed her a much better appetite, but there still could be a problem. Here are some pictures of the lower part, where it is the softest: (Sorry they are so blurry!)



Any advice is welcome! It might be nothing, but you can never be too sure...

 

[queen koopa]

I put in soft shell in the forums search bar and quite a few threads come up.

 

[Aloysius Taschse]

I do not know why I did not think of that ?‍♂️ I used google instead and tortoise forum came up and then I looked at articles linked off of that. I also completely forgot there was a search bar - I haven't used it much.

 

[zovick]

Hi everyone,

My sulcata tortoise Kiwi has been doing great. She has a big personality and a large appetite, but today when I picked her up I could feel that the bottom of her shell was soft, almost like a plastic lid. I couldn't really find much information online and I've looked at other posts but haven't really found anything, so I figured it just might be best to start a new thread. Maybe it is shell rot or metabolic bone disease, but I am not an expert in this! The only thing that I think could cause this is that the rescuer (one her new females came in pregnant) did not give her a proper diet or calcium supplement. I do now and I also feed her a much better appetite, but there still could be a problem. Here are some pictures of the lower part, where it is the softest: (Sorry they are so blurry!)
View attachment 312870View attachment 312871


Any advice is welcome! It might be nothing, but you can never be too sure...

The tortoise does not have shell rot. Often times the plastron feels a bit soft in the young tortoises due to rapid new growth taking place. It appears your tortoise has a pretty good amount of new growth, so the softness of the lower shell is not that unusual.

I would say to just keep doing what you have been doing and use good vitamins and also a good calcium supplement to augment the bone growth. I always used Herptivite Vitamins and Ultafine Rep-Cal (with Vit. D3) if you want some recommendations. I put both of those on my young tortoises' foods every day.

 

[JoesMum]

There is a difference between flexible and spongey.

A young tortoise has a flexible plastron. It has to uncurl when it first hatches and when it has straightened it takes time for the plastron to harden.

If the plastron feels spongey that’s a problem. Then you need to check out your UVB as it is likely your tort isn’t getting enough and also a tiny pinch of calcium powder sprinkled on food 2-3 days a week won’t do any harm. Don’t over do the calcium; you can give too much. And without UVB the calcium cannot be processed by the tortoise.

 

[Aloysius Taschse]

Thank you - it feels just flexible. I sprinkle a bit of calcium powder every day and but the UVB bulb is not that good. I'm getting a new enclosure and uvb strip soon so hopefully she will grow up to be a healthy and strong tortoise!

 

[Tom]

Thank you - it feels just flexible. I sprinkle a bit of calcium powder every day and but the UVB bulb is not that good. I'm getting a new enclosure and uvb strip soon so hopefully she will grow up to be a healthy and strong tortoise!

Have you seen this?

The Best Way To Raise A Sulcata, Leopard, Or Star Tortoise

I chose the title of this care sheet very carefully. Are there other ways to raise babies? Yes. Yes there are, but those ways are not as good. What follows is the BEST way, according to 30 years of research and experimentation with hundreds of babies of many species. Babies hatch during the...

tortoiseforum.org

Austin has pretty good weather most of the year. You might not need indoor UV.
There are four elements to heating and lighting:

1. Basking bulb. I use 65 watt incandescent floods from the hardware store. Some people will need bigger, or smaller wattage bulbs. Let your thermometer be your guide. I run them on a timer for about 12 hours and adjust the height to get the correct basking temp under them. I also like to use a flat rock of some sort directly under the bulb. You need to check the temp with a thermometer directly under the bulb and get it to around 95-100F (36-37C).
2. Ambient heat maintenance. I use ceramic heating elements or radiant heat panels set on thermostats to maintain ambient above 80 degrees day and night for tropical species. You'd only need day heat for a temperate species like Testudo or DT, as long as your house stays above 60F (15-16C) at night.
3. Light. I use LEDs for this purpose. Something in the 5000-6500K color range will look the best. Most bulbs at the store are in the 2500K range and they look yellowish. Strip or screw-in bulb types are both fine.
4. UV. If you can get your tortoise outside for an hour 2 or 3 times a week, you won't need indoor UV. If you want it anyway, get one of the newer HO type fluorescent tubes. Which type will depend on mounting height. 5.0 bulbs make almost no UV. You need a meter to check this: https://www.solarmeter.com/model65.html

 

[Aloysius Taschse]

I have seen the sulcata care sheet guide and her new enclosure will be perfect (I hope) I took her out every day above 75 degrees last week and let her romp around the yard for at least an hour, but I still want a UV strip in her enclosure. I'm getting thermostats, a basking rock, and a ceramic heat device. The room I keep her in gets lots of sun and her new enclosure has a clear top. My house does stay above 60F (My parents don't even like it below 80). Also, the uv meter link you have doesn't work, it just says the "404 error". Markw84 suggested an arcadia uv stip and I will look for another solar meter. Thanks for the amazing advice as usual!