Sulcata baby dry shell

[BeeBee]

From the first day, I got Willow, her shell was already dry and had scratches on them. I spray her every chance I get, she gets soaked twice a day for 15+ minutes each time. She has a humid hide and the temperature is no less than 80 ambient. The only area that reaches 100 degrees is the basking area. The lights aren't hung too low. I It is very dry in Colorado so keeping 80% humid is quite a challenge so her enclosure gets sprayed down almost as much as she does. It's been a little more than a week now and I see no improvement. Her scutes are not loose or anything but they look so dry that you feel like you can pry it up with you nails. The individual scutes are not smooth either. Each is like a landscape silhouette. Some parts dip down and some are a bit raised in the same scute. It's hard to see it in the picture. Is there something that can be done? That big white area on her left side, second scute down is just a scratch that took a tiny chunk from her shell.

Also I took a picture of her beak and just wanted an opinion on if it's on its way to being overgrown.

I got Willow on December 19, 2014 as a Christmas present.

 

[Dizisdalife]

Yeah, cold weather and home heating systems really lower the indoor humidity. You are better off totally enclosing the enclosure. It makes keeping that humidity up much less difficult. Give it some time. You are not going to see results in a few days or weeks. If you can keep the humidity up around 80% then in a month or so you will start to see positive results. To keep the beak as trim as it should be I fed my baby on a flat tile, like a paver from Home Depot.

 

[Gillian M]

A very warm welcome to the forum....you'll love it here!

 

[BeeBee]

Thank you!...

I see posts on coconut oil. I think I may investigate this to see if it is option for a baby sulcata

 

[Tom]

Do you have an open topped enclosure? I don't know how you are measuring humidity but maintaining 80% even with all that spraying is very unlikely. You need so much heat with an open top that it is almost certainly contributing to that drying and pyramiding.

Its really time to get a closed chamber. Oils and shell goop does not address the problem and instead only attempt to deal with the symptoms.

 

[theguy67]

Do you have an open topped enclosure? I don't know how you are measuring humidity but maintaining 80% even with all that spraying is very unlikely. You need so much heat with an open top that it is almost certainly contributing to that drying and pyramiding.

Its really time to get a closed chamber. Oils and shell goop does not address the problem and instead only attempt to deal with the symptoms.

I agree. You will find here that Tom and others on this site are very informative and have a lot of experience. The baby's shell doesn't appear that bad, but that is because you probably caught it early. I would do as the above comments suggest and close the enclosure up. You will probably want to reduce the basking lamp if you did this as it may over heat the enclosure, but that's just a guess. It all depends on how the environment is.

 

[Yvonne G]

To me it doesn't look so much dry, as it looks like there's something rough in the habitat that the tortoise is scraping its shell on. Is the hiding place too small for the tortoise?

The beak looks fine.

 

[Moozillion]

I think Willow is BEAUTIFUL!

 

[BeeBee]

Do you have an open topped enclosure? I don't know how you are measuring humidity but maintaining 80% even with all that spraying is very unlikely. You need so much heat with an open top that it is almost certainly contributing to that drying and pyramiding.

Its really time to get a closed chamber. Oils and shell goop does not address the problem and instead only attempt to deal with the symptoms.

Trying to shoot for 80% humidity is quite a challenge. I didn't mean I am able to maintain 80%. It's just a goal I strive for. Sorry if it came off otherwise. I don't just spray the enclosure down, I dump a lot of water in it too but not too much to make it swampy.
My humidity average is only about 60-70%. Sometimes I reach 80%. Most days I don't. I do want a closed enclosure but that will take time since I lack any skills to create one. Right now the top is always sealed with foil. I read on another thread that MVB bulb sucks moisture from the shell so I wanted something topical to prevent that, not to 'goop' her up to make me feel better and does nothing for her.

I agree. You will find here that Tom and others on this site are very informative and have a lot of experience. The baby's shell doesn't appear that bad, but that is because you probably caught it early. I would do as the above comments suggest and close the enclosure up. You will probably want to reduce the basking lamp if you did this as it may over heat the enclosure, but that's just a guess. It all depends on how the environment is.

The enclosure is closed with makeshift foil panels. Willow doesn't spend a lot of time in the basking area and even if she does, I put a hide there and she usually goes in it.

 

[BeeBee]

To me it doesn't look so much dry, as it looks like there's something rough in the habitat that the tortoise is scraping its shell on. Is the hiding place too small for the tortoise?

The beak looks fine.

Thank you. I'm glad at least she's not shriveling up. Those scratches were already there when I got her. I had taken a picture of her when I first got her and I was comparing it to now and just thought she looked dry.

I just compared the pictures and there is no new scratches that I can see....whew. Willow is 3 inches and I have her in one of those Christmas tree bins. The only thing that hangs above are the lights. As paranoid as I am when it comes to her, I pretty sure nothing is scratching her and she is my only pet.

 

[BeeBee]

I think Willow is BEAUTIFUL!

Thank you very much! She makes me super happy!

 

[Tom]

It looks like Willow has had a dry start. Possibly before you got her.

As a general rule: The more electric heat you use, the more carapace desiccation your tortoise will experience. Spraying and keeping the substrate damp helps, but the problem is still there...

It looks like your tortoise has had some of this desiccation. I would look toward reducing your need for electric heat. This is tough in an open topped enclosure without also reducing temperatures. If I were closer I would make you an enclosure, but perhaps you could enlist the help of someone handy near you?

 

[BeeBee]

It looks like Willow has had a dry start. Possibly before you got her.

As a general rule: The more electric heat you use, the more carapace desiccation your tortoise will experience. Spraying and keeping the substrate damp helps, but the problem is still there...

It looks like your tortoise has had some of this desiccation. I would look toward reducing your need for electric heat. This is tough in an open topped enclosure without also reducing temperatures. If I were closer I would make you an enclosure, but perhaps you could enlist the help of someone handy near you?

Yes when I got her, she was already pyramiding. I even came on here to ask for second opinions. I don't think I can reduce the electric heat. I have one basking light, a MVB and CHE for night. The enclosure may be open but I try to cover it up as best I can and that's all I really can do for the time being. It's way to cold to build anything right now and she'll freeze if I take her out for natural light . What I need to do is move to a more humid state but I love my mountain state too much...hehehe

Anyways, I'm going to continue to work on maintaining a humid climate. Thank you for your advice

 

[BeeBee]

Yeah, cold weather and home heating systems really lower the indoor humidity. You are better off totally enclosing the enclosure. It makes keeping that humidity up much less difficult. Give it some time. You are not going to see results in a few days or weeks. If you can keep the humidity up around 80% then in a month or so you will start to see positive results. To keep the beak as trim as it should be I fed my baby on a flat tile, like a paver from Home Depot.

You are completely right! I measured the humidity in my house and it was at 0%... Colorado air is dry, not to mention cold too. If I need a humidifier, maybe Willow does too. But thank you for your positive words.

 

[Juan V]

My water turtles used to lose quite a lot of pieces of shell that looked just like yours.. They would grow and bits of shell would just "peel off". It was totally natural and It just meant that the animal was growing. However i've never heard of this thing happening in sulcatas.

Trying an 80% humidity in an enclosed chamber might be quite difficult and even though Tom (who's an expert and knows way more than I do) keeps his tortoises in those high humidity high temperatures, i'm quite reluctant into giving them that much humidity . Be that as it may, I think if you soak the soil that extra humidity will be noticed by your tortoise in a very positive way. You can also soak the tortoise in water to add more hydration to it every once in a while (if you dont want to or cant soak them daily that's O.K,).

The animal will be needing some humidity and high temperature.

 

[Zeko]

You NEED 80% humidity for a healthy smooth Sulcata. Ignore anyone and anything that tells you otherwise. They are uneducated or inexperienced.

Either seal up your enclosure, keep substrate damp and spray it down as needed or run a humidifier into the setup.

The damage already done can not be reversed, however over time the future growth can come in smooth.

In the end, how you achieve the 80% humidity doesn't really matter, as long as your tortoise gets it.

 

[Morlas Mama]

My poor tort was the same when I got her, completely dried out. I can only tell you what I did to help rectify the situation and maybe some will disagree but this is what worked for me.

Cover that enclosure! Like everyone said, all your spraying is going nowhere if you can't control the environment. Might as well spray water into the whole room because that's where it's going. I use plain old, ugly foil. I spray the underneath of it with water before putting it on to help control the moisture even more. If you do this in conjunction with the constant spray downs, you WILL see increased humidity. Also, get yourself a humidity gauge. You never really know what the environment is until you measure it.

Also, from my medical point of view (human medicine); what happens to your skin when you stop drinking enough water? It dries out. No matter how much lotion you slather on, your skin will still be dry if you don't drink water. I found with my tort, the more water she drank, the more she was hydrated from the inside out. In my tort-novice medical professional opinion, this helps with shell hydration. I started by bathing her 3 times a day 20-30 minutes each time. It's labor intensive (make sure the water stays warm) and some may disagree with the amount and frequency. But, this worked for my tort in the one month I've had her. When I bathe her, I don't just put her in the bath and walk away. I use that time to pour warm water over her shell continually with a small cup. As the water runs over her, some of that water she drinks in through her nares. Don't drown your tort! Just a small steady stream flowing from the cup on her shell only. The water that makes its way around the neck and occasionally over the head is enough for the tort to drink in without stressing the tort.

Hope that helps!