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Dry Skin?

22 16:07:23

Question
I have a beautiful 20 month old red foot tortoise, he/she has a nice dark shell which is rounding nicely, but my tortoise seems to have dry skin almost on top of it's head. With this turtle/tortoise/terrapin lotion (VitaShell) It's seemed to go away, but i have to continually use it every other day or every 2 days or else the dryness comes back. Is that normal? In every other way he/she's healthy, with a healthy appetite and she/he's very active and friendly. And also when can i start to tell the sex?

Answer
Hi Skye,

Vitashell is not a healthy product to use on your tortoise (although it isn't bad hand lotion for people), so throw it out.  Tortoises do shed their skin, but you should make sure your tortoise's enclosure is moist and humid enough.  If you can give me more information about how you're keeping your tortoise, I can give you better advice--type and size of enclosure, substrate, type of basking/UVB bulb, temperatures, diet, etc.  Sexing tortoises is dependent on size rather than age, so it depends on how quickly yours grows.  You should be able to tell at about 8 inches, give or take a bit.