Hi everyone, introduction and advice

[Carina and Stu]

Hello everyone, I'm very happy to be a member on this site and talk to people who care so much about animals as much as me! This site is amazing.

Anyway, I have a beautiful little boy, named Stu. Full name Disco Stu because he looked like he was dancing when I first saw him in the pet shop- headbutting everything in site! . He is a Hermann's Tortoise, about 1 year old now. I know it is too early to sex him, but the liars at the reptile shop (I have had a lot of trouble with them concerning 2 Rankins Dragons since), told me that he was a boy. So that's who he is for now until I am proven wrong. He is very healthy, so the vet told me a few months back. Bright black eyes, good reflexes etc, though a little overweight, but not dangerously so. He has a very healthy appetite and I feel mean not giving him all the food in the world (he could eat for England!) but I know he should have a controlled diet for his own sake! He is a little character.

However, I have noticed over the past couple of weeks a sort of pattern growing over his shell. He has a beautifully bright and colourful shell. This pattern that I have noticed is light in colour and is made up of swirls. I hope this makes sense! It is over the top and bottom of his shell. I am also a little concerned that he is developing shell rot on the bottom, or whether this is just his shell I am not sure. I will try to upload some pictures... hope it works! I'm not sure if these pictures show the pattern very well but I will try to make them as clear as possible.

Can anyone explain what this pattern is and a little more about shell rot? I'm very protective of him - he is my little boy and I want to do everything I can to make him happy and healthy, even though being in his natural environment would be the best thing for him

I look forward to hearing from you

Carina and Stu

oh... i'm not sure i can upload photos. it doesn't seem to be working...

 

[egyptiandan]

Welcome to the forum Carina

This should help you with posting pictures http://tortoiseforum.org/thread-5245.html

The swirls your talking about are perfectly natural and normal.
Your going to have to post pictures of what you think is shell rot for us to have an idea of whether it is or isn't shell rot.

Danny

 

[Carina and Stu]

Hi Danny, thank you for that - why do the swirls come up? What do they mean? I've never heard of them before.

I'm trying to upload pictures of his plastron as we speak - I hope they're clear enough for you to see...

This (hopefully!) is Stu's plastron. What do you think? He used to have a little bit of shell rot down the middle on the big plates, but I think it's cleared up a long time ago. You can see here the swirls I mean too.

Here's Stu. You can't really see the swirls here unless you're able to zoom in?

Carina

 

[egyptiandan]

Stu is looking great I'm not seeing any shell rot, active or old. The swirls come with actively growing animals and becomes much less noticable with age.
There isn't a thing wrong with Stu.

Danny

 

[Carina and Stu]

Ah brilliant! Thank you for taking a look at him. I'm gonna go give him a bath now, which he hates, and a bit of carrot or something to make him feel better! ha ha

take care

Carina and Stu

 

[Isa]

Welcome to the forum,
Stu is so adorable, a real beautie!

 

[maevamichelle]

Welcome to the forums!! Nice little Stu you got there, he's a cutie

 

[Yvonne G]

Welcome to the forum, Carina! Stu is a real beauty.

Yvonne

 

[Meg90]

What type of substrate is he on? It looks a bit like calci sand in the pics.

He has a gorgeous shell! Such a bold pattern

 

[Candy]

What a beautiful looking shell. He is very cute.

 

[Jacqui]

Wow what a handsome tort Stu is!!!

 

[Crazy1]

Welcome to the forum to both you Carina and Stu

 

[Carina and Stu]

Wow! Thank you for all of the welcoming! Stu and I are very happy to be here. Looking forward to "meeting" you all and your little ones.

Meg90 - the background in the picture is just the table that I put him on. The substrate in his viv is wood chip.

Question - does anyone elses tortoise seem to be a bit less active? Stu seems to be behind his log a lot of the time. Though he's still eating practically anything he can lay his claws on! Been like it for a couple of weeks. Was wondering whether it's because of the weather and air pressure? I've been told they're sensitive to that.

Carina

 

[Crazy1]

Carina could you post a pic of his enclosure and discribe what type of wood chips, lights, heat-temp and humidity that is in his enclosure and what the ambiant air temp is day and night. That would be a good starting place for us to be better able to help you and Stu.

 

[Carina and Stu]

Hi there, thanks for getting back to me.

This is his viv. It measures 4x2x2.

There is wood chip substrate, a UV strip light along the back - Repti-glo 5.0 exo terra (I used to have 10.0 until I was informed that the strength could be too strong and cause cancer!?), and a ceramic heat bulb which is controlled by a thermostat. During the day the temp is around 30 - 32 in the hot end, and about 25 - 28 in the cool end. The massive log on the left hand side is in the cool end and he seems to hide behind it a lot. Although he's been in the middle under the leafy part the past couple of nights, as he is now. He has a good appetite and is active when I get him out. He was loving it today!

Caj

---

Oh yeah, and i drop the temp at night to 22. is this too warm? i don't want him to freeze! thought i'd lower it gradually cos if i do it too fast too quick it'll be a shock to his system

Caj

 

[tortoisenerd]

22 C is about 71 F. That's fine from what I've read. They get a temp drop at night in the wild.

 

[galvinkaos]

I really like the flourescent (long) type light. I have a spot type with a clamp light which I have not been thrilled with. I am building a new turtle table because I underestimated how much space 2 15 mo old DT need (and because I was inspired by some of the tables I have seen pix of here). I think that will be an upgrade when mine needs replaced. I am a newby, here and to torts, so other than a hearty welcome, I feel inadequate to provide advice. Other than never trust your other pets unsupervised with your torts. That I have scary but survived experience with. Oh and Stu is very handsome.

Dawna

 

[Chase]

Are you sure that Stu is indeed a he? Stu really looks like a female to me due to the short stubby tail. Here's a picture of my male tort... see the difference?

http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=2chs12a&s=5

 

[tortoisenerd]

At a year it may be too soon to tell (and if you read the first post the OP is going on the assumption that Stu is a he).

I'm going off the same assumption for my tort as I was told he was temperature-sexed, so I'll assume that's right until he's old enough to tell. There have been many cases of people thinking their tort is the other sex but that later proves wrong (even with the shell and tail differences).

Danny seems to always be right but I didn't see him give an opinion in this thread.

 

[oswego tort lover]

stu looks like a female eastern hermanni...........ed