New Here!!

[Whit-e]

Hi all - I am new here - my story.....

My son got a RT for Christmas last year 06'. My sister got her for him, she got her from a pet store. I did much research before we brought her home, set up everything just like I researched, got all food/vits ready, here we go.

Took her to the vet, she weighed in at 221g, he said she had shell rot, was extremely underweight for her size and had a lot of scaring on her shell what a shocker....we had no idea!!

So, per the vet (he was recommended by my cat's vet as a good herp vet) he said to feed her worms she needs more protein, I said that goes against everything I have researched. He said to do it. Well new to reptiles I trusted the vet and she loved them! But after just a short time I got hooked up with a very knowledgable tort/turtle person that set me straight - again.

She had a great summer, cruzing around outside eating, exercising, growing. She is now at 379g and all of her shell rot is long gone, and has had a very steady growth since early spring. Here she is, you can see her growth ring, it is hard to see but her underneath is expanding too, nice and uniform. Saphira....


I don't have pics that I can post of when we got her, but this was her this summer, you can see the difference between the ones above.


I went to a hibernation seminar late summer with the expectations of hibernating Saphira, well she was still not quite healthy enough so we will have to wait until this fall.

Any comments would be great. She has slowed down a lot, which is expected being winter and all, but still doing great. What a great little species, we just love her. She sure opened my world up to reptiles like I never thought possible.

Thanks for looking, peace!

[JLC]

Welcome to BP.net!!

I have a special place in my heart for torts...they're SO cool! I'm so glad that that little girl found her way into a home that cares enough to seek real answers...and be willing to make changes when necessary. It's more rare than you'd think!

She looks awesome and I hope we get to see more pics of her growing up!

[MATT FISHER REPTILES]

bingo takeing them out side for a lot of natural sun light is the number one cure for shell rot. that and a lot of vitimns. i help people that keep torts on other web sites all the time. the number one problem is they say i dont know what is worn i have a heat light. but after more questions they dont have a uv full spectrum light. there have been some pretty nasty cases of shell rot that have been turned around.

[Whit-e]

When the vet said "shell rot" and started pealing her shell off, the smell and ozzz, I cried and so did my son!!!

It is crazy because I did a lot, and I am really not kidding, of research before we got her and it most definately did help but it was still hard to deal with. Also, after we got her, I started seeing more and more about exported torts, reptiles, for that matter. If I had known what I know now before we got her we might not have. So on one hand I am glad I did not know, because Saphira is just the coolest thing ever.....

I was a little worried that she was growing too fast. But I saw some results of another RT in about the same situation as Saphira and the growth was very similar. It does seem to be very consistant, did not just happen over night, it has been almost a year! No pyramiding, I know that is a good thing.

[littleindiangirl]

That's great to hear! I hope that someday I can keep a bunch of little tortises running around in my backyard. But until then, I'll just stare at your cutie!

[cpx_20o5]

HEY E!
its me tay, thanks for showing me this forum.
its great! i love it.

=] Saphira is beautiful!

[Whit-e]

Yea!!! Welcome to you Tay - it does seem to move along pretty good and a lot of knowledge here too!!!!

You need to show off your little Looi and Daisy beauties too, their just sooooo cute!!! - E

[cpx_20o5]

Ill post a thread soon