Shell

[stinky.g]

Hello! I recently got a Russian tortoise and just noticed that lines around her shell are starting to get fairly white. After research I saw it could just mean growth. But I wanted to see if maybe anyone thought it could be shell rot or growth.

 

[harrythetortoise]

Look like growth lines!

 

[stinky.g]

Thank you so much! I got so worried as I have been struggling with keeping the humidity low in her cage, but hearing that someone believes it’s growth lines makes me feel much better!

 

[harrythetortoise]

Thank you so much! I got so worried as I have been struggling with keeping the humidity low in her cage, but hearing that someone believes it’s growth lines makes me feel much better!

High humidity is actually recommended for smooth growth in young tortoises.
Have you read Tom's care sheet?

The Best Way To Raise Any Temperate Species Of Tortoise

I chose the title of this care sheet very carefully. Are there other ways to raise babies and care for adults? Yes. Yes there are, but those ways are not as good. What follows is the BEST way, according to 30 years of research and experimentation with hundreds of babies of many species. What is...

www.tortoiseforum.org

 

[KarenSoCal]

It is absolutely new growth. Shell rot looks nothing like that. And shell rot is very rarely found on the carapace. It's mostly a problem affecting the plastron.

I'm hoping your statement about keeping the humidity low was only because you thought it might be shell rot. Actually, lowering humidity will not help shell rot. It generally develops when the tort has been laying in water, usually because the substrate has been saturated, instead of just damp. The treatment for shell rot is athlete's foot cream, as the rot is a fungus.

Glad your baby doesn't have it!