Can a tortoise with a scuff on his shell regenerate the pattern?

Question

My russian tortis was outside one day and my neibor accidentally stepped on the stone he was under and scuffed his shell. Will the pattern grow back?

Answer 1

As you can no doubt guess from the other answers, the right answer is a solid 'maybe'.

Tortoise shells are a fascinating series of layers, of living and inert tissue, of pigment cells, and more. The center of the scute (scale) is different than the edges in a lot of ways.

The absolute answer here will depend on where it is scuffed, how deep, how old is the tortoise, and more- but these are the main ones.

A mild 'roughening' of a scute will probably be fine. Deeper scratches may take a long time to fade- and may never do so. Some of the scuff may vanish completely over time and another part remain forever.

Just too many variables. Bottom line- keep it clean and healthy and don't sweat it!

Answer 2

Now I didn't read the full article but from what I did read it will not regenerate on it's own. The following link will take you to the article that has tips and tricks for you to help the repairing process along.

http://www.anapsid.org/shellrepair.html

If you have any questions feel free to email me at [e-mail] I have a Sulcata Tortoise and have spent many hours reading articles to help answer questions here on Yahoo!

Answer 3

No the pattern will not repair if it was a deep scuff.

It will be dull in that area.

Look close to make sure the shell was not cracked. Watch it close to make sure there was no other injuries.

You can use a soft cloth to wash and buff the area, but if its a deep scuff no it will not.

I wash and buff mine up for pictures (water only). Their imperfect marking dont show up as much.

Answer 4

My daughter and I had a Greek Tortoise a few years ago that had been abused before we rescued it and it had a few scuffs and chips in his shell.  They never fully grew back, but we used this cream called Vita-Shell and it made it less noticeable and really brightened up his color too.  It won't hurt, so I'd suggest giving it a try.