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Red Foot tortoise help/ advice

J

jacobr189

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Hello,

I've had my red foot tortoise for about a year and she (I think she is a girl) has always had a few little patches of white areas on the bottom of her shell. It seems to spreading a little, it's not deep, it's not pussy, and she seems to have had since I have had her.

So you under stand her conditions and habits, She eats well, I feed her a variety of dark leafy greens (no lettuce), fresh fruit, every two or three days, and every two weeks about a table spoon or so of very lean high end natural cat food. On most meals I sprinkle a little Cal-Ston on her food. She loves the cat food and will even go after bugs, I have fed her meal worms and crickets and she goes nuts for the warms! Since my girl friend hates the worms I switched to the cat food since it's easier to store. Overall she will eat daily if I feed her that much but I know over feeding can be an issue and when I first got her she was starting to pyramid. She is still young and only about 5-6 inches so I have her in a 40 gallon breeder tank, she has a 150watt uv basking light, and a repti-sun 5.0 bulb in her cage. I also have a heating pad under the other side of her cage since that side was sitting around 65-70 degrees, now its closer to 75. The basking side with the two lights sits around 80-85. I use a zoo med fogger daily and mist the cage regularly as well but the humidity between misting sites around 35-45%. During the misting I can get to 65-80%, I covered half the screen cover with plastic to help keep the humidity up. She comes out regularly and seems pretty healthy and active. She reacts to my voice and activity of the house. However she will sit in her moss hide out a lot too! She comes out and does laps when she is hungry, wants a bath, or wants to just wander the room and get attention. She has baths every two or so days for about 20-30 minutes in warm water, I let her walk around my bedroom for an hour or so a few times week and we have a great little relationship.

Now all this said I wanted to map out how I care for her since she means a lot to me. I'm concerned about this white area on the bottom of her shell, it seemed smaller at first and now it seems to be growing. I use ceder mulch and change her bedding every 2 months or so, I remove all left over food and potty spots, I change her water dish every day or so.

Attached are pictures of her shell and home, let me know if you have suggestions or tips, I like knowledge!

Thanks,

Jake
 

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That is some pretty wicked shell rot.

What you need to do is get some betadine and athlete's foot creme. Mix the betadine with water until it is a weak tea color, and then use it to wash the affected area. Then apply the athlete's foot creme to all the white areas. You will want to keep her dry and on paper towels. The coconut coir will stick to the creme and make a mess. Keep applying it daily until it is cleared up. Only use the betadine for the initial cleansing. To keep her hydrated, soak her in warm water every day for 20 minutes prior to applying the creme.

Also, feeding every day will not cause a tortoise to pyramid. Overfeeding is bad, but you can feed her daily. I typically feed my tortoises what they can finish in 15-20 minutes of steady eating, daily.

You may have to change the bedding to cypress mulch.
 
I'd get her to a vet if I were you. She may need more than just athelete's foot cream for that and shell does not grow back once it's gone. She may need stronger anti fungals.
Also your husbandry sounds pretty good, just don't over do the animal protein. That can cause pyramiding. Over feeding can just cause them to get fat. I keep mine on coconut fiber and have never had a shell rot issue so I don't think that's the issue. It probably started before you got her like you said and just isn't healing on it's own. Good luck.
 
I would toss the Cedar. Cedar and Pine are toxic to most mammals and reptiles. It's not a recommended bedding.

I used Aspen and have used the packaged dirt successfully. I actually recommend the packaged dirt for their substrate. I would also drop the Cat food, it is not needed.

Fruits, veggies and Calcium in the winter and Sun in the Summer are the correct ingredients to successfully raising a Tort.

*I had mine for 4 years, sold him with no pyramiding and no rot on his belly.
 
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