Hermann’s tort growth issues. Genetic issue?

[HoosierTort]

A friend hit me up this morning with a pic and question on an 8 month old eastern Hermann’s.
Has anyone ever seen folding like this from the plastron during growth? Husbandry is on par and all other hatchlings are growing normal.

Any thoughts? Almost like reverse kyphosis or something genetic?

 

[ZEROPILOT]

I have never seen that before. But if all of its siblings look "normal" my guess would also be a genetic issue/defect

 

[TheLastGreen]

@zovick @Markw84 may know?

 

[HoosierTort]

My other thought is possible physical damage or trauma when younger? I’ve seen delayed growth from damage on marginal scutes of picta picta and DBT. Maybe that, or some positional issue when younger? I’m at a loss.

 

[zovick]

My other thought is possible physical damage or trauma when younger? I’ve seen delayed growth from damage on marginal scutes of picta picta and DBT. Maybe that, or some positional issue when younger? I’m at a loss.

I am afraid I cannot help. I don't know what would cause this type of stunted growth only in the plastron.

Perhaps trauma, perhaps not, especially if you have owned the animal its entire life and never saw any sign of trauma.

If if were genetic, you might expect to see it expressed in this tortoise's siblings as well. If it were a recessive gene, I would expect to see it in roughly 25% of the offspring over a long period of time. Have the parents been bred previously, and if so, have any other babies looked like this one? If you didn't breed it, you could ask the breeder.

 

[Markw84]

It is hard to say what this is. My 2 best guesses are
1 - a defect from inbreeding. I've seen that type of reduced plastron before in other species when there had been inbreeding.
2- lack of calcium availibility while the tortoise was growing possibly its 6-12 month. Carapace was better formed by then (even though fontanelles would not be over costals), but plastron still in the midst of ossifying. It looks like the new bones beneath the middle plastron were not growing. Perhaps high protein with no calcium or D3 at that stage??

Dr Zovickian's guesses are as good as mine as well!

 

[HoosierTort]

I am afraid I cannot help. I don't know what would cause this type of stunted growth only in the plastron.

Perhaps trauma, perhaps not, especially if you have owned the animal its entire life and never saw any sign of trauma.

If if were genetic, you might expect to see it expressed in this tortoise's siblings as well. If it were a recessive gene, I would expect to see it in roughly 25% of the offspring over a long period of time. Have the parents been bred previously, and if so, have any other babies looked like this one? If you didn't breed it, you could ask the breeder.

This is a friends Hermann’s so I don’t know about any other genetic issues. I’ve never seen this with any I’ve hatched and grown out, nor have I been asked about any I’ve gifted away, so I don’t think any of mine are producing anything like this. He does have a few of mine from this year he is raising up. Just trying to narrow down what it could be. Hopefully the plastron will begin growing and somewhat catch up. Ugh

 

[HoosierTort]

It is hard to say what this is. My 2 best guesses are
1 - a defect from inbreeding. I've seen that type of reduced plastron before in other species when there had been inbreeding.
2- lack of calcium availibility while the tortoise was growing possibly its 6-12 month. Carapace was better formed by then (even though fontanelles would not be over costals), but plastron still in the midst of ossifying. It looks like the new bones beneath the middle plastron were not growing. Perhaps high protein with no calcium or D3 at that stage??

Dr Zovickian's guesses are as good as mine as well!

This makes sense. This is an 8 month old tortoise he has had since 4 weeks. When I send him a few I hatched out, I completely changed his feeding as all he had before were red foots. (I actually had to get him to change their diet too as it was basically a yearling box turtle diet.)
I didn’t notice any obvious signs of issues with it when I gave him the hatchlings. It was still pretty young so I didn’t imagine it was that thrown off by the diet, but as I’ve learned getting things correctly dialed in isn’t easy and having just a little off can screw the pooch.