white patches on head and legs

[tess]

Help! My female Greek is turning white. We use a mixture of tap water and artesian for bathing. Because the bottled water is too cold, I mix some hot tap water into the bath to warm it up. I had been bathing strictly in tap water, but worried about the effect of chlorine on my shelled friends. Also recently, my male is beginning to develop a white patch on his head (where hers started) and I hate to see his beautiful color ruined.

 

[russian/sulcata/tortoise]

welcome to the forum! can you post some pics of what you are worried about?

 

[tess]

You can see it most markedly on the hind leg here, which used to be uniformly as dark as the foot.

 

[lismar79]

Maybe its just the lighting of the picture but I do not see anything to be conserned about.

 

[tess]

Maybe its just the lighting of the picture but I do not see anything to be conserned about.

The picture really doesn't show how remarkable the pigment change is. But I think what concerns me most is the change in in color over the past few months and now, the appearance of a similar patch on the other one. However, I don't know know how old they are. Maybe pigment loss is a sign of age? I've only had them for two years, but they were adults when I got them.

 

[lismar79]

If its only on head and legs, they could just be shedding or get ready to.

 

[tess]

Ok, thanks! I just wanted to make sure that this wasn't something infectious!