Soft Head on Russian Tortoise

Question
I recently purchased a Russian Tortoise for my son (not nearly 2 weeks). I do not handle the tort very often as my son does the primary care. He recently came to me saying he thinks the torts head is soft and squishy. I did feel the spots where he was concerned over and they do feel squishy. It starts right about where the neck starts. Is this normal? Was it just overlooked in previous inspection? Should I be concerned that this is a more serious problem?

Answer
Hi Lisa,

You may be feeling the neck/jaw muscles.  Much like our temples, turtles have jaw muscles.  When the turtle eats try to see if the soft spots are moving up and down.  The turtle skull itself should be very hard (feel on top between the eyes and the top of the nose).

If you are ever worried about the turtle's shell/bone strength, gently poke or tap my nail on the bottom of the turtle shell.  It should feel hard - tap on the top of one of your nails for comparison.  Hopefully you have a UV light - the tortoise cannot have strong bones without UV light.  They are sold in pet stores and the best are mercury vapor bulbs.

I don't know about tortoises but some of my box turtles like their temples rubbed :)

Here is a link about their general care:
http://www.austinsturtlepage.com/Care/cs-russian.htm


-Amanda