Herman tortoise with a soft shell??

Question

ok i have 2 baby hermanns that i got last month 1of them was smaller than the other..anyway while the bigger 1 is growing strong and healthy the smaller barely grew at all and now he has a soft shell!! he doesnt eat so today when i noticed his soft shell i fed him myself and he ate a little

he also limps and barely opens his eyes.

is he going to make it?

Answer 1

sorry honey it does not sound good,  sounds like he was fed the wrong diet resulting in a soft shell feed your tortoise calcium to help the shell harden and make sure it is getting enough UV light, it sounds like he is a sick little tortoise so you need to get him looked at by a reptile vet, with treatment and a good diet your tortoise could make it, but he does need treatment by a vet who knows reptiles

Answer 2

Softshell at this early age, combined with eye issues, etc. is a really bad sign, but without more information, like housing and diet info, does not really tell us much.

Softshell is a sign of a metabolic disorder, which basically means it is not getting the right nutrients, or is not processing them right. Softshell points to a problem with calcium.

To use calcium the right way, first the tortoise has to get enough calcium in the diet. An amazingly large number of foods have very little calcium in them. Most lettuces, for example have almost none, and most fruits and other vegetables are very low in it.

Next- it need the right mix of calcium to phosphorous (abbreviated as the 'Ca:P ratio'). The right ratio is about 3 or 4 parts Calcium to one part phosphorous, or a Ca:P of 3-4:1. Most of the fruits and vegetables, and quite a bit of the meats, we eat that we feed tortoises has a ratio of 1:1 or worse.

Too much phosphorous, and we get soft bones. Too little and the bones are brittle.

Then, we need vitamin D3 to help 'unlock' the cells so calcium can get in. No D3, no calcium in the cells. D3 comes mostly from real, unfiltered sunlight, but it can also come from special UVB light bulbs (not just 'black light' or plain UV bulbs), vitamin supplements, or some foods (mostly mushrooms and meat.)

I would recommend trying a different, better diet. Try the recommendations at http://www.tortoisetrust.org as a start.

Good luck!