peeling and separating on my leopard tortoises shell

Question
QUESTION: hi, i have recently noticed on my 3yrold (i live in arizona, she's kept outside with grass and a hut with ceramic heat and a heat mat, i feed dark greens and small amounts of other veggies) places on her shell that are separating from each other and a few of the edges are starting to lift away from the shell.  what can i do, is this normal, or should we go straight to the vet? thank you so much for any help. ~karen

ANSWER: My guess is that this is a combination of diet, temp, and humidity. Try http://www.africantortoise.com, http://www.tortoisetrust.org or http://chelonia.org/Articles/pardaliscare.htm for general care details.

Leopards have a slightly tricky care regimen. They need a dry, fiberous diet but some moisture in it, and low humidity with a place with higher humidity- a hide, etc. Even in Arizona, this can be tricky sometimes, especially on a grass lawn.

I cannot tell for sure, but it is my guess that what is happening here is that the tortoise is growing a bit quickly (because of the green/wet diet), but in a place that may be a bit drier than it wants.

I would correct the diet and offer a more humid spot- a planted area with a mister, a 'burrow' with a slow water drip, etc. while keeping most of the habitat low humidity.





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QUESTION: thanks so much for the quick response!  ok, alittle more info for you.  i put grass in but it didn't do very well, so i have lots of mostly dead sorry looking grass.  it's pretty dry, not a nice lush green lawn.  i have really good alfalfa hay in her house, i turn the heat on at night as it's still in the 80's and 90's during the day here.   should i do anything about the condition of her shell?  will it correct itself?  is she uncomfortable?  i will get some humidity in there somehow.  and she hasn't been eating as well as she has in the past, i figure it's the weather change.  should i take her to the vet?  anything you can tell me, i really appreciate!!  thank you veryvery much!~karen

ANSWER: In general, alfalfa is not considered as healthy for tortoises as Timothy hay is, and of course, anything they can forage is generally good as well.

Flaking on the shell usually self-corrects, and is not painful or uncomfortable to the tortoise. The more severe the flaking is, the longer it takes to go away so the main thing we look for is that it stops getting worse.

An easy way to do humidity is to take a plastic tub or box with a lid big enough to act as a hiding place. Cut a hole in one side for access, then put a couple inches of absorbant material in the bottom. Long-fibered sphagnum moss (such as www.mosserlee.com from Lowes) is especially good but many things work nicely. Dampen the moss and put the tub in a warm part of the habitat.

In an outdoor habitat, other options include make a burrow with some humidity in it, or put a mister or dripper over some vegetation. I have read of one guy who has buried some large clay flower pots to make dirt-bottomed caves, then arranged a big jug over the pot with a slow drip onto the pot to keep it moist.

For Sulcatas, dry grass is a better substrate than lush and green! They don't do too well when the bottom of the shell stays wet. In the wild, they would be able to self-select hot or cool, dry or damp based on what they need. We cannot do this perfectly in most situations, but we can try.

Good luck!

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QUESTION: ok mark, another question.  two sections of my leopard tortoise's shell are lifting enough that i can see under them.  i can see dark colored sort of fibrous, pithy looking stuff under there... it doesn't look at all healthy.  these two sections are pretty disconnected from the rest of the shell, i can lift them away almost completely.  should i remove that part of the shell and the brown stuff underneath?  some of it appears to be sorta disconnected and loose.  and if i do remove those parts it won't grow back, will it?  and was that caused by not being moist enough?  thanks an awful lot for everything..  karen

Answer
OK, now we have gone from some minor flaking and edge lifting to two scutes nearly off with rot of some sort underneath.

This is a more serious problem, so I am giving you a link to look at and see if you want to tackle this on your own or see a vet.

http://www.tortoisetrust.org/articles/shellrot.html