Preventing soft shell

[Amanda :)]

Hello wonderful people,

Iv been a little worried and doing all I can to prevent my babies from developing soft shell, they have cuttlefish in their table and a uv strip light attached to the inside of their table! I also sprinkle calcium on food now and again and iv also ordered vitamin supplement powder netrobol (something like this)

Looking at teeny and tiny they look absolutely fine, although I may be over feeding teeny as she or he is getting a little big and starting to develop very small faint White line on his shell! Anyway I decided to have a good feel of there shell, gently squeezing and now although they are hard they are not rock hard, when squeezing there is a little movement of the shell and it feels a little soft, really little amount! Make sense? Anyway is this normal? Should there shells be really really hard or is it normal for there to be a little movement when gently squeezing the shell??

See picture bellow of the table with the light and Its position

Amanda

 

[Redstrike]

I had a similar question not too long ago. The responses were that hatchlings generally have more elastic shells - they're a bit springy - versus juvenile shells. You want to be concerned when the carapace/plastron feel like leather in your hands, you're probably all set.

I give my two hatchlings a very sparing amount of Calcium powder daily. An old salt shaker works well to apply it. Occasional D3 supplementation probably wouldn't hurt if your tortoises are in doors for the winter and don't see any sunshine. I give mine liquid D3 (~100 IU's each) once every 8-10 days even though I have a MVB and UVB strip fluorescent.

You may want to consider placing a reflector around your bulb, it's likely you're losing some UVB by having it so open within the environment. Tinfoil works fine, here's information on that:
http://www.uvguide.co.uk/fluorescenttubereflectortests.htm

 

[Amanda :)]

I had a similar question not too long ago. The responses were that hatchlings generally have more elastic shells - they're a bit springy - versus juvenile shells. You want to be concerned when the carapace/plastron feel like leather in your hands, you're probably all set.

I give my two hatchlings a very sparing amount of Calcium powder daily. An old salt shaker works well to apply it. Occasional D3 supplementation probably wouldn't hurt if your tortoises are in doors for the winter and don't see any sunshine. I give mine liquid D3 (~100 IU's each) once every 8-10 days even though I have a MVB and UVB strip fluorescent.

You may want to consider placing a reflector around your bulb, it's likely you're losing some UVB by having it so open within the environment. Tinfoil works fine, here's information on that:
http://www.uvguide.co.uk/fluorescenttubereflectortests.htm

Thank you so much for your response, I do actually have a reflector bulb within the table also, I actually ordered it off eBay but I thought it was a heat light but when it arrived it said reflector lamp! So I have attached it to the table as it seemed a bright light and teeny and tiny seemed alot more active when it was on, could this be working at reflecting the uv light around the table more?

Amanda

 

[Maggie Cummings]

I don't think that those flourscent bulbs put off much UVB. If you can and it were me I'd get a 100 watt MVB. I give my animals calcium with D3 at every other feeding. Lightly sprinkled over the food. Then once a week I use Miner All. I make sure to feed a good diet full of dark leafy greens and a variety of everything I can find. I try and feed the best diet possible. Here's a link for you...


http://www.russiantortoise.org/

 

[dmmj]

Best way to prevent it? calcium and sunshine. You don't have to worry (their shells are like leather) , until they go from hard to soft. as long as they don't do that, then let nature take it's course.

 

[Redstrike]

I had a similar question not too long ago. The responses were that hatchlings generally have more elastic shells - they're a bit springy - versus juvenile shells. You want to be concerned when the carapace/plastron feel like leather in your hands, you're probably all set.

I give my two hatchlings a very sparing amount of Calcium powder daily. An old salt shaker works well to apply it. Occasional D3 supplementation probably wouldn't hurt if your tortoises are in doors for the winter and don't see any sunshine. I give mine liquid D3 (~100 IU's each) once every 8-10 days even though I have a MVB and UVB strip fluorescent.

You may want to consider placing a reflector around your bulb, it's likely you're losing some UVB by having it so open within the environment. Tinfoil works fine, here's information on that:
http://www.uvguide.co.uk/fluorescenttubereflectortests.htm

Thank you so much for your response, I do actually have a reflector bulb within the table also, I actually ordered it off eBay but I thought it was a heat light but when it arrived it said reflector lamp! So I have attached it to the table as it seemed a bright light and teeny and tiny seemed alot more active when it was on, could this be working at reflecting the uv light around the table more?

Amanda

Hi Amanda,
Is the "reflector bulb" the same as your UVB tube florescent? My point was that if your tube florescent doesn't have a reflector around it (which it doesn't in your pictures above), you'll be loosing UVB from that light source. Think of the UVB rays coming from the entire bulb, you're losing UVB rays from the top and sides - basically everywhere that is not below the ground surface of the enclosure. A reflector will bounce these rays back downward. The link I posted in my previous post explains this very well, I'd strongly encourage you to read it. If your other light source is a UVB emitting bulb with a reflector, then yes, you should be all set.

Maggie is right, not much UVB comes out of those tube florescents. Looks like you have a russian there? A mercury vapor bulb may be a good option for your tortoise? They are expensive, but can provide more UVB wavelengths than the tube florescents. Zoo Med has a 1-year warranty on their Power Sun bulbs. If you can't make the investment, I's supplement your tort with D3 in addition to the Ca 1-2 days per week.

 

[Tom]

Sunshine and a good diet are the best medicine for this. Supplements and artificial lights are great if there is not an alternative, but the real thing is always best. I'm just sayin'...

 

[Redstrike]

Sunshine and a good diet are the best medicine for this. Supplements and artificial lights are great if there is not an alternative, but the real thing is always best. I'm just sayin'...

No doubt!