Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a 9 month old Eastern Hermanns tortoise and noticed over the past couple weeks that his skin has become very dry, almost cracked and peeling. Seems worse on the soft skin around his neck. Is there a chance he's not getting enough humidity even though it's a Hermanns tort? Has anyone else had this problem. Otherwise he is healthy, eating fine, and growing steadily.

My setup is as follows: housed indoors in Florida. Warm side has Mercury Vapor lamp with temps 95 - 97, cool side is a steady 73 - 75. Substrate is mixture of bed-a-beast & calcium sand. Has fresh water available. I soak every other day for 5 to 10 minutes (just long enough to drink and pee). I do not add any extra moisture to the substrate so it is very dry. He spends much of the day under the vapor lamp and in his favorite hide at night on the cool side (the lamp goes off at night). Gets to roam outside supervised 5 days a week. Diet is roughly 40% grocery greens, 30% dandelion, 20% mazuri, 10% carrots/banana. I add calcium/d3 every day with food.

Is there some type of ointment I can use or change something in my setup to help with his skin? Or do I just let it go and closely monitor it?

Thanks, Fred.

For a long term fix maybe you need to add a humid hide box.. you can make one by putting damp spaghnum moss inside a hide box.

For a quick fix you could try what I did with a box turtle.
I have one who's basically in a body cast, his plastron was shattered by a dog last fall. When he was given to me he was infected, so he was vet treated for the infection, then repaired by the vet. Since I took him in he's been living in a small enclosure set up as a hospital room for him. I use old bath towels for substrate because he needs to be kept very clean. That leads to dry skin & daily baths weren't keeping him from drying out.
I started adding a few drops of Stress Coat (it's made for aquarium fish)to the bath water & that has helped a lot.
Stress Coat has aloe vera in it so to avoid the possibility of him getting diarrhea from drinking the treated water, I let him drink first then add a few drops. Aloe vera wouldn't be harmful to him but if he injested too much too often it could cause diarrhea.
I know that people use this for their pet frogs & hermit crabs. I thought if it's safe for fish, amphibians & crabs, it's got to be safe for turtles too.
It really has helped stop that dry skin problem with this box turtle.
Just a thought...
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PHRatz

n/p

Fred,

It is very likely that your tortoise is just shedding, which is perfectly normal & a sign of good overall health. I went through this with my Leopard a few months after I got him & got all excited over nothing.

Davey

Thanks to both of you for your replies and advice. I will take a slow, non-evasive approach for now and add a humid hide as a choice as well as frequent soakings and see how it goes. I thought it was interesting to notice how his eating habits have greatly increased as the weather got warmer whereas in winter, even in Florida he was eating much less than he is now.

Fred