Cracked skin

Turtletots

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My redfoot's skin is very dry and cracked. What causes this and what can I do to heal it?
 

crimson_lotus

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What is the humidity in your enclosure and what are the temps? They need 80% humidity and 80 degree temperatures. Do you ever soak your tortoise?
 

Turtletots

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Her heat lamp just burnt out not too long ago and it was kept around 75- 80 degrees but her skin was cracked before then. And she doesn't have much humidity either. How do I fix that?
 

crimson_lotus

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You need a new heat lamp, if the temps drop below 75-80 they can get sick. These guys come from South America and it's warm year-round. Do you have a UVB bulb, or do you bring your tortoise outside?

For humidity I would recommend buying a humidifier. You can get a regular one and buy a tube to get the humidity into the enclosure. Keep in mind when adding humidity you will definitely need to keep the temperatures 80-85 degrees. They can get respiratory infections very easily if the temperatures are not monitored, especially if you have high humidity. If you have an open top table or tank, I would highly recommend closing it off to keep the humidity and heat in. What are you using to monitor your humidity and temperatures? The petco gauges are very inaccurate and I would not recommend using them.

If your tortoise is a baby, you should be soaking her daily. If not, you would need to soak 2-3 times a week. Soaking in warm water keeps them hydrated. Dry environments and lack of soaking can lead to a whole bunch of problems like dry skin, kidney/liver issues, watery/bubbly eyes and eye infections, and kidney stones which can grow incredibly large and may not be passable.
 

crimson_lotus

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Other things you need to consider for humidity would be the substrate. Anything like hay, rabbit pellets, wood chips, or paper towels are awful and should not be used. They are dry and they mold. You would need some type of soil, coco coir, orchid bark, or cypress mulch to raise humidity.

If you have a picture of your enclosure we could help you tweak it and make it better.
 

Turtletots

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Thank you so much, you are very helpful! I take my turtle out daily and soak her for 10-15 minutes every other day. We have some plastic over her tank but that probably doesn't help any! We have a cheap light bulb over her tank as well but that does very little.
 

crimson_lotus

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How big is your enclosure? I would recommend a ceramic heat emitter for night time, it emits no light and all heat. Mercury vapor bulbs are a good UVB/Light/heat combination. Without UVB tortoises and turtles develop metabolic bone disease. If very far gone, they could lose the ability to walk and their shell kind of looks like its caving in. Glad you're taking your tortoise out for some sun, though. How long do you usually leave her out for?

And where are you located? Do you get harsh winters so you can't take her out year round?
 

crimson_lotus

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The dirt/coco coir/bark/mulch you choose should be a bit damp but not soaking wet in your tortoise enclosure. You can pour warm water into the corners of the enclosure every week to keep it a bit moist. Too moist could cause shell rot.
 

Turtletots

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Yes we do get very harsh winters but we'll probably have bulbs by then. I don't know how to upload a picture on here to show you my tank. But it's a 10 gallon tank.
 

crimson_lotus

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That's pretty small, you could purchase a large plastic bin like a christmas tree storage bin that would provide a lot more room. Or maybe an old bookcase turned on its back. If you or anyone you know could make a larger enclosure out of wood it would probably be a lot cheaper. Those tanks are small and expensive.

Here's a good site for info on Red Foots: http://www.tortoiselibrary.com/species-information-2/chelonoidis/

and here's a site about tortoise safe foods: http://www.thetortoisetable.org.uk/site/plants_19.asp
 

crimson_lotus

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I would get rid of that tortoise statue and the food dish when there's no food. The space is pretty small and she probably can't move around much. Tortoises get very stressed and like to hide, so I would add a hide box/log for her to hide in. The substrate you get should be enough to bury the water dish into, so she won't struggle getting in and out of it. They should be able to sit in the water if they want to, and that dish looks like it has high edges.

The recommended enclosure size for an adult redfoot is 6x8
 

Tidgy's Dad

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Hello and a jolly warm welcome to Tortoise Forum.
You're already getting lots of great advice from the most excellent Crimson Lotus so I'd just like to agree that getting rid of that horrible turtle feature would be a good start, but concentrate on the humidity.
You've come to the right place for up to date tortoise information.
 

Yvonne G

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Hi turtletots, and welcome to the Forum!!

That's a very small habitat for your redfooted tortoise. You need to upgrade as soon as you can. The tortoise needs a substrate he can dig into and that you can moisten. The moisture in the substrate evaporates under the light, causing the humidity inside the habitat to raise. This makes the tortoise feel more comfortable. Here's an idea of what a redfooted tortoise habitat should look like:

http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/heres-dales-new-enclosure-picture-heavy.11023/#post-95174

As you can see from the final picture, the tortoise lives in a more natural state, with moist substrate and plants. This also help to keep his skin soft and supple.
 

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