Skin scales coming off?

[TestudinesSG]

Hello! I wanted to post on here to see if anyone could give me some information regarding my 17 year old Hermann’s Tortoise, Kokiel.

The defined scales on his hind legs and tail seem to be coming off little by little. I thought maybe it was his substrate causing it, so I soaked him, let him dry out completely, and put him in clean substrate. However, it hasn’t seemed to get any better.

At night, he is currently in a 6‘ x 3‘ tortoise enclosure (pic soon), with about 3 inches of coconut fiber. His enclosure fluctuates between 69 to 80% humidity and 90-95 degrees on one side, and 79-82 degrees on the cooler side. He always has water, and he is fed Mon, Wed, Fri, A variety of vegetables, dandelion greens, and grasses. I also add Mazuri Tortoise Diet with sprinkled calcium and multivitamins on Monday.

During the day, he is kept outside on my balcony where he gets full sun and a place to hide. The walls on the balcony are solid so there’s no chance of escape or danger of falling. I had to move into an apartment now, so this is his current setup until I get a new house.

Any advice would be much appreciated. He’s my buddy and has been with me for a long time, so I’m most likely going to go ahead and take him to the vet, but perhaps some of you have seen this before?

Much love!

 

[Bee62]

Hello, tortoises need no extra multivitamins. Vitamin A in a high dose causes skin shedding. The metabolism of tortoises is slow. Maybe your tortoise got too much vitamin A as needed.
I would stop giving any vitamin supplement right now.
Be careful with feeding Mazuri too. Torts that are fed with herbs and weeds need no Mazuri.
Why do you feed your tort not every day ? Tortoises living in the wild eat every day.
That is what I would change.
Please don`t take your tort to a VET when he is good eating and behaves normal. VET`s often want to give vitamin shots which would make the problem even bigger.

 

[TestudinesSG]

Hello, tortoises need no extra multivitamins. Vitamin A in a high dose causes skin shedding. The metabolism of tortoises is slow. Maybe your tortoise got too much vitamin A as needed.
I would stop giving any vitamin supplement right now.
Be careful with feeding Mazuri too. Torts that are fed with herbs and weeds need no Mazuri.
Why do you feed your tort not every day ? Tortoises living in the wild eat every day.
That is what I would change.
Please don`t take your tort to a VET when he is good eating and behaves normal. VET`s often want to give vitamin shots which would make the problem even bigger.

Thank you for the advice! I will feed him every day from now on.

I can stop giving him the supplements and since you said vitamin A could be the culprit, I will stop feeding him carrot shavings once a week as a snack.

 

[Bee62]

Thank you for the advice! I will feed him every day from now on.

I can stop giving him the supplements and since you said vitamin A could be the culprit, I will stop feeding him carrot shavings once a week as a snack.

Good idea. The skin shedding / scale shedding should stop soon. Some skin shedding is normal with torts, so I think you don`t have to worry about your buddy.