What should a healthy tortoises tail look like.
- Thread starter Shelldonn
- Start date
Hi and welcome to the forum, i have a 2yr old hermanns, if you post some pics we can compare
Looks like the actual tail was bitten off by another tortoise. I have a couple yellowfoot tortoises that that happened to
Females have shorter tails. That is what this looks like, but it also looks a little swollen around the cloacal area.
I also notice what appears to be sand all around the area. This is bad. Tortoises should not be house on sand. Over time they ingest it and it can cause a blockage or constipation. When they are constipated, the cloacal area will sometime swell up like that. Long soaks and the right diet can help clear it, if that is that problem.
Tortoise legs look dehydrated as suggested up the soaks to encourage drinking and hydration.
They had just walked through there water bowl, as for changing the substrate I have kept reptiles on wood chip before would this be a good substrate to put my tortoise on. They are currently on pets at homes tortoise terrain.
There is a lot of bad tortoise care info out in the world. That Pets At Home substrate is dangerous and should not be sold. How could anyone think it is a good idea to encourage a tortoise to eat sandy substrate by putting little calcium bits in it? Your tortoise is likely blocked up from accumulated sand in the GI tract. An X-ray can confirm or deny this possibility.
In any case, you need to remove that substrate ASAP and replace it with fine grade orchid bark, AKA "Repti-bark".
Here is all the current and correct care info, including substrate. Questions are welcome:
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...
tortoiseforum.org
