Here’s our little Tortilla! She has a slightly wrinkled shell

Tortillatort

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Hey everyone! New to the forum. We have got ourselves a new tortoise. She seems very happy and active. Eyes are clear. She seems to to have some wrinkles in her shell. We use a sprinkle of repti cal every other day. She only will eat romane lettuce. I assume it is because it is easier to chew. We tried cactus,carrots, collard greens, mustard greens, and she ate none. Not interested at all. Included is some pictures of our set up and of the tort itself.

We don’t have any humidity monitoring devices at this time. Temp is a steady 80F.

4C6EEC4B-0D17-43CC-A30C-C69E144F7EA3.jpeg AC8DAA8B-7C1C-4EE6-B983-6F84CD8A8BE6.jpeg
 

Lyn W

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Hi and welcome.
She is beautiful, how old is she?
There is a great caresheet which will tell you all about temps, humidity, substrate and most importantly diet - there isn't much nutritional value in Romaine so she needs a much more varied diet. If she is a picky eater Introduce new foods with some romaine but gradually ease off until the healthier diet is accepted. Dandelions are easily available now but make sure they are from a safe chemical/fume free place. www.thetortoisetable.org.uk is also a good guide for identifying the foods on the caresheet.
A pinch of calcium should only be given a few times a week as too much it can cause kidney or bladder stones.
Bumpy shells are the result of being started too dry and low humidity. She will enjoy a soak in luke warm water where she may wee and poop so be ready to change it when she does!
It's difficult to tell her size from your pics but the enclosure may be a bit small for her to get the range of temps she needs.
Have a look at the Enclosures thread for some good ideas.
 
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Tortillatort

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Thanks for the reply. Yeah she was wrinkled when I received her. I have a hard time keeping the humidity in our cage. I find myself spraying the substrate several times daily. Still dries out. I soak her daily and like you said it usually encourages 1&2 which I consider a good thing so I know the machine is working. I will try the mix in method. For now I have been feeding copious amounts of romane.
 

SweetGreekTorts

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Thanks for the reply. Yeah she was wrinkled when I received her. I have a hard time keeping the humidity in our cage. I find myself spraying the substrate several times daily. Still dries out. I soak her daily and like you said it usually encourages 1&2 which I consider a good thing so I know the machine is working. I will try the mix in method. For now I have been feeding copious amounts of romane.
Pour water directly into the substrate and mix it all around until it's nice and damp (but not soaking wet). That will help humidity. You'll also need to completely cover the top to keep humidity and heat in. You can easily rig a shower curtain over the lights.
 

TammyJ

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Welcome to the site and all the best. Be very careful with the lights and the shower curtain because of the possible risk of a fire starting if the plastic gets too hot! Been there and done that, although no real harm was done as I caught it in time.
 

Tortillatort

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I used tin foil but it raised the temp to over 90F and I didn’t know if that was okay for a constant temp. Especially when we aren’t home.
 

Yvonne G

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You're making a big mistake by giving in to the tortoise's dietary 'likes.' You're creating a picky eater. Baby tortoises eat what they are used to eating. The previous owner probably took the easy way out and fed romaine.

If you have some sort of kitchen appliance that will make mush, like a food processor or blender, grind up a couple leaves of romaine until it's pulpy juice. In the meantime, chop up some weeds or dark greens into SMALL particles. Add the romaine juice to the chopped up greens and mix well. Over time you can decrease the amount of romaine and increase the greens.

Incidentally, tortoises don't chew. They have no teeth. They just bite off a piece, tongue it into their mouth and swallow it. So cutting up the greens will help the baby with the weak 'bite' get some food into his mouth.
 

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