Is this normal? (white spots on shell)

foreverfrann

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Mar 26, 2021
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3
Location (City and/or State)
Richland wa
My tortoise Betty White is just over a year old and these flaws on her shell have recently developed. When I got her at 3 months old her pyramiding was a lot worse. Her she’ll has gotten smoother but now I’m worried about these white spots and random indents. Her shell is hard pictures of the plastron for good measure.
 

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Tom

The Dog Trainer
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What size is she, and what size enclosure? What humidity? What are your temps and how are you maintaining them? What type of heat lamp? What substrate?
 

foreverfrann

New Member
Joined
Mar 26, 2021
Messages
3
Location (City and/or State)
Richland wa
What size is she, and what size enclosure? What humidity? What are your temps and how are you maintaining them? What type of heat lamp? What substrate?
She’s just over a pound, she has a 6ft x 2.5 ft tort table filled with soil, hay, & reptile wood chips. Her table has 3 different temps, 90 in her hide, 70 degrees in another spot and 100 under a basking lamp. She has 1 CHE bulb, 1 uva/uvb bulb and then another uva/uvb, heat bulb. Lights are on during the day, at night only the Che is on. She has a repti-fogger that runs most of the day and keeps 1 side of the table at 50%.
 

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Tom

The Dog Trainer
10 Year Member!
Platinum Tortoise Club
Joined
Jan 9, 2010
Messages
63,265
Location (City and/or State)
Southern California
She’s just over a pound, she has a 6ft x 2.5 ft tort table filled with soil, hay, & reptile wood chips. Her table has 3 different temps, 90 in her hide, 70 degrees in another spot and 100 under a basking lamp. She has 1 CHE bulb, 1 uva/uvb bulb and then another uva/uvb, heat bulb. Lights are on during the day, at night only the Che is on. She has a repti-fogger that runs most of the day and keeps 1 side of the table at 50%.
You've got a few problems. All constructive criticism here, and any or all could be related to your carapace problem.
  • Soil and hay should never be used as substrate. The "wood chips" look like orchid bark, and that is the best substrate, but the other two have to go.
  • Daytime ambient temp in the entire enclosure should be approximately 84-92. Basking area around 100 is great. No part of the enclosure should ever be under 80 day or night. This is impossible to do in an open topped enclosure in a cool dry room.
  • Looks like you are using the wrong type of UV bulb. CFL bulbs can damage their eyes and they are not effective as UV sources. MVBs dry out the carapace excessively and cause pyramiding, and sometimes weird growth anomalies like what you are seeing.
  • Foggers should not be run into tortoise enclosures. Breathing water droplets is not good for them. You need humidity, not fine water droplets.
  • Humidity should be over 80% in every part of the enclosure.
All of this and more is explained here, and your questions are welcome:
 

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