Is this tortoise healthy?

[namenotshared43]

Hello everybody, living in England like I do - it’s not often you see other tortoises bar your own.. however, walking home I found a tortoise on the side of the road walking.. I have checked his/her eyes and behind and nothing looks damaged or diseased - however the jaw is worrying me. Is this normal, lack of feeding, or is it broken?

Ps. I hsve notified local Facebook groups about a potential missing tortoise.

 

[The_Four_Toed_Edward]

To me it looks like it is overgrown and since cracked. Either way it hasn't happened over night so there could be some negligence there on the owners part. @Littleredfootbigredheart should be able to help you.

 

[_The_Beast_]

I agree with @The_Four_Toed_Edward - the beak is quite overgrown, likely from poor husbandry, and needs to be filed down. Are you able to give him a good soak and some healthy food while waiting to see it sometime claims him or taking him to an appropriate rescue?

 

[namenotshared43]

I agree with @The_Four_Toed_Edward - the beak is quite overgrown, likely from poor husbandry, and needs to be filed down. Are you able to give him a good soak and some healthy food while waiting to see it sometime claims him or taking him to an appropriate rescue?

I will give him a soak asap! Thank you very much. So far no one has claimed him he can- my guess is another idiot neglecting a tort

 

[Littleredfootbigredheart]

Hello everybody, living in England like I do - it’s not often you see other tortoises bar your own.. however, walking home I found a tortoise on the side of the road walking.. I have checked his/her eyes and behind and nothing looks damaged or diseased - however the jaw is worrying me. Is this normal, lack of feeding, or is it broken?

Ps. I hsve notified local Facebook groups about a potential missing tortoise.

Poor thingthat’s quite the underbite! This can sometimes be down to poor diet, lack of uv, and just overall bad husbandry. I think a vet may need to take a look to provide a possible trim, which will need to be done bit by bit, not one go.

Looks like a Greek tortoise, I’ll pass on all this care info& links for if you choose to keep the tortoise if no one claims him. Or perhaps you can pass these on to whoever houses him

I know it says Russians and hermans, but safe care information applies. I made this thread based on the forums care information and added visual aids, it covers correct equipment(uvb, heating bulbs, lighting etc), correct levels, sizing(more on that later) appropriately maintaining the humidity, safe substrates, there’s lots of visual examples for everything, and a really handy diet link to check out! I go over an open set up here, but if you don’t brumate in winter, an enclosure topper is a really good idea in the uk, vivs work even better, I’ll add ideas below

Housing adult Russian and Hermans indoors

Hello there! In this thread I’m going to include some information an example of an appropriate indoor set up for an older Herman/russian. As much as it’s encouraged to have tortoises in a safe outdoor enclosure, I understand being from the uk myself, that some climates make it difficult to...

tortoiseforum.org

This includes potential topper ideas to help lock heat in, but I will say vivs/pvc vivs are definitely the most efficient and easy to maintain levels in

Visual inspiration

Hi guys! I’ve had some lovely messages complimenting me on my care sheets I made for all the visuals they include! That makes me so happy because as a visual learner myself, that was my goal🥰 I’ve recently had some requests for some more visual inspiration for set ups that can house babies/...

tortoiseforum.org

There’s a uk company called Southdown aquatics that make custom sized vivs, but if they’re out of your price range, there’s definitely plenty of ways to make your own, with different levels of diy skills.

This includes lots of inspiration for an adult set up both indoors and out! The indoor bit has some good ideas to tackle indoor space whilst still providing the needed roaming room! Check comments too, I’m always adding to it. I know the recommended adult size is intimidating to some, but tortoises long term health really does rely on lots of roaming room

Enclosure inspiration

Howdy folks! Hope everyone is well! As you all know, I’m a big fan of making threads that cater more towards visual learners like myself, I’ve really been wanting to create a thread full of adult enclosure inspiration for a while now, I’ve managed to find some great references over time! I do...

tortoiseforum.org

Lastly, this one here is good to go over and keep on hand, it’ll help you avoid the wrong bulbs, substrates, housing etc, I always encourage double checking purchases on the forum too before buying

Common keeping errors

Hello everyone! I’d been a long time lurker on this site long before joining just under a year ago now, over that time I’ve seen these husbandry issues come up time and time again, sometimes with dire consequences☹️ I thought this thread might serve as a good visual guide for these common...

tortoiseforum.org

Feel free to ask any further questions, if keeping the tortoise in your possession whilst you figure out a permanent rescue /home, I’d focus on getting some sort of base put together that you can hang a reptile flood light over(if not wanting to invest in ambient lighting, make sure the temporary set up is somewhere bright during the day), I’d get either coco coir or orchid bark(coir might be cheaper) as the substrate, and some cheap digital monitors. If ambient temperatures are too cool, a more permanent solution will be needed. Welcome to the forum

 

[TammyJ]

Thanks for caring and sharing!
All the best to you and the tortoise.