Bathing and Soaking
Click here for a step by step tutortial I created on my youtube channel!
Oil, wax and soil build up is actually harmful to your tortoise's shell. Just like we do on our faces, tortoises have pores on their shells. We clean our faces to clean out our pores thus meaning that a torotises shell must be cleaned to unclog the pores. Leaving them clogged up could lead to problems in the future. One thing to remember is that you should NEVER put anything on your tortoises shell, the shell should "shine" on it's own if properly cleaned.
It's ideal to bathe your tortoise once a week, that's what I do and I find that it keep my tortoise clean and healthy. A lot of people mey disagree that tortoises need a bath because they don't have a bath in the wild, but captive tortoises should be bathed. You should aim to bathe and soak your tortoise as much as possible. I like to soak him 2-3 or more times a week and bathe him once a week.
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All you need to bathe your tortoise is a toothbrush, some cotton swabs and tepid water. Also try to have a dish or bowl that your tortoise can't see out of. For the purpose of the video, I did not do this, but a good idea is to do this in the bath or sink as the tortoise has much more room to roam around and it can't escape.
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The water that you use should not come above the bottom of the tortoises neck as they can't swim and they may drown. You should first leave the tortoise to soak for about 15-20 minutes then you can replace the water (which I did not show in the video) and place him back in there. This just gives him time to rehydrate and replace their old water stores with new ones.
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I din't use one in the video (as I didn't have one on hand) but you can then take a toothbrush (make sure it's clean) and gently brush the entire shell (carapase) to clean off any dirt. You shoul dalso do this to the underneath of his/her shell, legs and head (but be very gentle) to keep it clean. I then like to take a cotton swab (the thing you use to clean your ears out with) and clean in between his "armpits" and his bum area. Make sure you don't twist the cotton swab in between the armpits as it can pinch his or her skin.
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Finally, rinse him. NEVER put anything on the shell such as detergent or shampoo. The shell is a living tissue and this could portentially harm it! These products can put your tortoise at rish or in a fatal sense even if they're safe for dogs and cats etc.