White around shell and plates

Shellyshell

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Hi there, I am worried about my cousins Russian tortoise. We have had this one for a year or so now and it does not get the attention it needs, but it well fed. It had white around its shell and plates. Is this new growth for him? Is this lack of vitamin D or calcium? She’ll rot? We don’t know much about tortoises and no one in the area does either. Can anyone assure me he’s okay. Thank you!
 

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ZEROPILOT

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Since no one else that has looked in so far has a theory, mine is its mostly transfer from cement of some sort of rocks or something else hard.
Superficial scuff marks. And to be more exact. It looks like he was attempting to get under something.
At any rate, it would not concern me one bit
 

wellington

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Not sure what Zeropilot is referring too, but yes, those lighter lines are growth lines but much wider growth lines than what is normal. Not sure what makes them so wide
@Yvonne G or @Tom maybe will know
 

SinLA

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Since no one else that has looked in so far has a theory, mine is its mostly transfer from cement of some sort of rocks or something else hard.
Superficial scuff marks. And to be more exact. It looks like he was attempting to get under something.
At any rate, it would not concern me one bit
Ummm, are you referring to the purple box or the red arrows. Cause the red arrows don't look normal to me at all...
 

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wellington

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Ummm, are you referring to the purple box or the red arrows. Cause the red arrows don't look normal to me at all...
The purple boxes area look normal to me. The growth lines is normal as far as they are growth lines. Not normal is how wide they are.
 

zovick

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The purple boxes area look normal to me. The growth lines is normal as far as they are growth lines. Not normal is how wide they are.
What is being observed in the growth lines is called a "signature line" which sometimes occurs when the tortoise's diet/environment has changed. In this case, it appears that the change was for the better, and the tortoise began adding new growth fairly rapidly resulting in the wider white areas.
 

Shellyshell

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Ummm, are you referring to the purple box or the red arrows. Cause the red arrows don't look normal to me at all...
I was referring to the red arrows, growth lines as you said. Yes, they seem much too wide to me. Could this be a tumor under the shell pushing? What else makes it grow too fast? Thank you so much for the info!!!
 

Shellyshell

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What is being observed in the growth lines is called a "signature line" which sometimes occurs when the tortoise's diet/environment has changed. In this case, it appears that the change was for the better, and the tortoise began adding new growth fairly rapidly resulting in the wider white areas.
There hasn’t been any change to his diet or environment. Eats, rarely gets a bath, under his rock most of the day and sun lamp on 40% of time. That’s why I’m a bit worried:( He was happy outside today but I’m not sure how long his shell has looked this way. Could he be eating too much?
 
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zovick

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There hasn’t been any change to his diet or environment. Eats, rarely gets a bath, under his rock most of the day and sun lamp on 40% of time. That’s why I’m a bit worried:( He was happy outside today but I’m not sure how long his shell has looked this way. Could he be eating too much?
The change in his environment and diet took place about a year ago when you first got the tortoise. The results are shown in the new growth which you have just noticed now. That growth started earlier, but you didn't notice it apparently. It didn't just start days ago. It doesn't happen in just a few days.

You can relax. The tortoise appears to be perfectly healthy.
 
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It looks like growth plates but maybe something more, but I have seen a lot of Greek tortoises with that exactly so you shouldn’t worry!
 

Ricky j

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Hi there, I am worried about my cousins Russian tortoise. We have had this one for a year or so now and it does not get the attention it needs, but it well fed. It had white around its shell and plates. Is this new growth for him? Is this lack of vitamin D or calcium? She’ll rot? We don’t know much about tortoises and no one in the area does either. Can anyone assure me he’s okay. Thank you!
Shell rot makes the tortoise shell soft so it's easy to tell when that's happening at least that's how mine was when I first got him from backwater reptiles before I knew they were a bad company to buy reptiles from
 

turtlesteve

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It is common when tortoises go through a hardship or a longer than normal period of time without growth, the later growth will not be even or uniform. In this case, some scute boundaries are stuck and not growing, while others are growing more to compensate.

This usually doesn’t cause any significant deformity, but sometimes looks weird.
 

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