# soft shell



## jeanie (Nov 11, 2007)

Hi my daughter in law has a totoise hes still not very old about 8 mths has the lights tank and everything he needs , the owners would not let him go until they were satified that he had it all , ( good for them) i wondered if anyone knows why his shell has gone soft hes been to vet and given a calcium powder to spread on his food, but he wont eat the food while its got the powder on it hes been back to vet a few times but they keep saying try and get him to eat the powder, which he wont eat at all if anything is on his food , any ideas we would be grateful for as nickie is very frightened shes going to lose him & so am i. thank you


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## carol (Nov 2, 2007)

what a worry for you 
trouble is its the calcuium he needs to harden the shell up
cant they give him injections instead 
good luck hope he gets better soon


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## Tayybear (Feb 15, 2008)

jeanie said:


> Hi my daughter in law has a totoise hes still not very old about 8 mths has the lights tank and everything he needs , the owners would not let him go until they were satified that he had it all , ( good for them) i wondered if anyone knows why his shell has gone soft hes been to vet and given a calcium powder to spread on his food, but he wont eat the food while its got the powder on it hes been back to vet a few times but they keep saying try and get him to eat the powder, which he wont eat at all if anything is on his food , any ideas we would be grateful for as nickie is very frightened shes going to lose him & so am i. thank you


Get rid of that horrid tank and build a tortoise table or get an indoor rabbit cage.
you should supplement his food with more than just calcium twice a week.
nutrobal, TNT, t-rex all are good supplements.

What tortoise is it?


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## Nigel (Feb 24, 2008)

I agree as above, he really needs to be in a open top tortoise table. Vivs and glass tanks ar no good as they do not provide enough ventalation eventually leading to respiritory problems. Also they do not understand the concept of glass and keep trying to get through leading to stress.

I believe the soft shell is caused by a condition known as osteodystrophy caused by wrong lighting, an excess in protein and by an insufficant amount of calcium in the diet. 
Is he on a weed diet, as the commercially bought food isn't really good for them. Good garden weeds include grass, dandelions, white clover and nettles


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