Meena
New Member
Hello! New owner to a 4 month old cherry head - and we're in love
My husband and I are new to tortoise care. We live in Southern California and (after careful research for almost a month) received our first cherry head hatchling 2 weeks ago. The breeder lives in SoCal as well, he has a beautiful pair that are very healthy looking with smooth-shells. He personally drove her to us to check out our enclosure and made sure it was appropriate for a hatchling. He stayed and answered all of our millions of questions and most of it lines up with what we've been reading here.
Temps always stay around 82-90F, go as low as 78 at night. Humidity always between 70-85% (been as high as 95% before). We soak her daily for 15 minutes (however we do not see her drink during her soak - she mostly walks around). She eats like a champ, poops every 3 days. We soak her leafy greens for added moisture. She eats only leafy greens, endive, bok choy, collard greens, dandelion greens, radiccio, occasional carrot/cucumber (per his recommendations we do not feed fruit yet - he says if they get sweets too early sometimes they won't eat the greens as much). We also use some calcium powder twice a week. Our breeder recommended coco coir on top of ecoearth for her enclosure. He does not recommend wetting anything (pouring water anywhere) other than using spray bottle in the morning for 10 seconds and the evening. So far our humidity has been mostly stable, it does waver in the afternoon, but we supplement this time with tube & humidifier my husband rigged and that stabilizes it. She's active and curious, she walks her enclosure, we even took her outside for some natural sun and let her munch on some clovers. She showed no signs of stress or wanting to hide. She's got quite a personality!
SO my question is, the day she arrived she had very small lighter brown marks sort of around 1 scute (see pic). I didn't think much of it at the time, but as the first week came and went I noticed it began to show on more scutes. I became a little worried, sent the breeder a picture, he said it's normal. I just wanted to make sure because it has progressed to more scutes now. I cannot find anything when I google it other than shell rot or shedding or possibly new growth? It's very frustrating so I thought I'd ask here.
Thoughts?
My husband and I are new to tortoise care. We live in Southern California and (after careful research for almost a month) received our first cherry head hatchling 2 weeks ago. The breeder lives in SoCal as well, he has a beautiful pair that are very healthy looking with smooth-shells. He personally drove her to us to check out our enclosure and made sure it was appropriate for a hatchling. He stayed and answered all of our millions of questions and most of it lines up with what we've been reading here.
Temps always stay around 82-90F, go as low as 78 at night. Humidity always between 70-85% (been as high as 95% before). We soak her daily for 15 minutes (however we do not see her drink during her soak - she mostly walks around). She eats like a champ, poops every 3 days. We soak her leafy greens for added moisture. She eats only leafy greens, endive, bok choy, collard greens, dandelion greens, radiccio, occasional carrot/cucumber (per his recommendations we do not feed fruit yet - he says if they get sweets too early sometimes they won't eat the greens as much). We also use some calcium powder twice a week. Our breeder recommended coco coir on top of ecoearth for her enclosure. He does not recommend wetting anything (pouring water anywhere) other than using spray bottle in the morning for 10 seconds and the evening. So far our humidity has been mostly stable, it does waver in the afternoon, but we supplement this time with tube & humidifier my husband rigged and that stabilizes it. She's active and curious, she walks her enclosure, we even took her outside for some natural sun and let her munch on some clovers. She showed no signs of stress or wanting to hide. She's got quite a personality!
SO my question is, the day she arrived she had very small lighter brown marks sort of around 1 scute (see pic). I didn't think much of it at the time, but as the first week came and went I noticed it began to show on more scutes. I became a little worried, sent the breeder a picture, he said it's normal. I just wanted to make sure because it has progressed to more scutes now. I cannot find anything when I google it other than shell rot or shedding or possibly new growth? It's very frustrating so I thought I'd ask here.
Thoughts?