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I have started my project to give my babies an outdoor pond. I have the pond in the ground but have not finished the inclosure to keep them safe. So they can play outside in the pond only when I am there to watch. Mammer loves it and swims everywhere but the others stay at the bottom and hide. Will they warm up to it? Or should I just keep them inside?

Ya, they'll warm up. Anything new will probably take them a week to get used to.

Are there plants and objects in the pond that they can hide in? If they feel vulnerable out in the open, they'll try to stay hidden.

There is a nice large piece of drift wood in it with a big crack that they hide in. I also have a few water lilies in there. I am trying to figure out how to get some water hyacinth but I live in Florida and no one can sell it. I can't think of what else I could put in there.

We've got duckweed in our pond. It floats on the surface, forming a mat that the turtle can hide under. Of course, there's nothing for a turtle to stand on. The duckweed mat also helps shade the water and Spot likes to nibble on it.

Duckweed cannot be sold in a lot of places as it is extremely invasive and should not be allowed to escape into public waterways.

Today we were working on the pond enclosure so I let my babies swim. One of the smaller females was in the open water swiming around. Mammer keeps getting out to explore. While she was out I noticed she was sheding on her back and under belly. Is there anything I can do to help? We are almost finished with the enclosure. We should be done tomorrow. I will take some pics and post them.

If the shell underneath is healthy, I'd just let the scutes come off on their own. She may try to "help" them come off by rubbing her carapace and plastron (bottom shell) against things, almost like she has an itch she's trying to scratch.

Last year when I brought my scute-shedding RES outside on the first day it was warm enough, he would head for bushes, crawl in between them and gyrate on the ground. When he decided to move on, in several places he had left scutes behind.