Habitat - Indoor :: How often do turtles shed?

[Kansasslider]

First of all, I should know this but I was just thinking about it today and thought why not post it. No one asks this question. Everyone wants to know why their turtle won't eat or bask etc but I have yet to see anyone ask when will or should my turtle shed its shell! I have 4 and only my res has shed one time. How about yours? How many times? What age? Do they need actual sunlight to shed? Shedding has got me stumped! Any input would be great. Thanks all

[steve]

Supposedly turtles kept outdoors year-round are the best shedders (including those that brumate). My turtles seem to complete a shed every 2-3 years, though not regularly and not all at the same time. Though they do sort of shed as a group (marginals, vertebrate, etc) but that's just from personal experience.

[Kansasslider]

My map and res are the most avid baskers. My map has yet to shed and my res has shed once. That's 4 years for my map and about 2 years for my res. My Diamondbacks have also not shed. I was just wondering if that was on target or not?

[unclejoe]

I can not say what is normal for indoor kept Turtles.. But I know from feeding the wild turtles for four years in Florida.. That the adult RES and YBS Shed every year. The RES seemed to do it early Summer and the YBSs did it in August. It was very easy to tell they were shedding.. cause when they lost a scute they also lost a yrs worth of moss off their shells. They would look so pretty for about a month then the Moss would start overtaking their shells again. I can't say for the soft shells, I don't know if they ever shed. Also never noticed any sort of shedding on the Snapper, but we did notice a lot of growth with both the softies and the Snapper..

In our experience the turtles fed like normal through shedding.. they never stopped coming to feedings or eating what they normally ate..

[ljapa]

I'll add to the mix by agreeing with unclejoe and kansasslider.

The wild turtles in the pond near me shed every year. The RES and painted turtles always have nice, smooth shells.

My RES shed once right around a year old. She has some scutes with raised edges right now, and some marginals that have actually shed--but, she's looked like this for months. My schedule and weather last year meant that she only got a few hours of real sunshine scattered over just three outings last year.

It's been very frustrating.

Skin shedding has been much more common, but is in small bits. The nay time I saw major, all at once, skin shedding was also around a year old.