Hi! Introduce yourselves here. :: Red earred slider skin is shedding excessively

[kragar]

http://youtu.be/LwiYpb3fIuA

Hi,

We adopted MsT last June when she wondered into our yard. Her shell was notched and in really bad shape. We nursed her back to health and continue to apply Turtle VitaShell on her shell weekly. She loves her 55 gallon tank, basking platform and walks around the house. The last couple days, however, I've noticed that her skin is shedding. I read that maybe it could be a cause of overfeeding, over and/or overheating. We did replace her basking lamp when the old one burned out and replaced her water heater. The water temperature is about 80 but I noticed that her basking platform was getting up to 95 degrees. I adjusted the heater down a notch and took out enough water so that it's 8 inches from the light. After another measurement, it went down to 80 degrees. Hopefully, it was a case of her platform getting too hot.

Any other suggestions?

[steve]

The video is listed as private. Are you saying the basking temperature went down to 80F?

[kragar]

I just changed the settings on the video so you can see it now. She seems to be doing much better this morning. The water and basking platform are both 80 degrees. Is that too cool now for the basking platform? I can add some more water back to raise the platform closer to the light.

[devilduck]

I would turn the water temp down in the mid to lower 70's F. To entice the turtle to bask the water temp has to be lower than the basking area temp. That way if he gets too hot in the basking area he can cool himself down in the water.

[steve]

I agree, lower the water temp. The turtle is also a male. VitaShell also isn't considered to be a good product... I would stop it's use or look for an alternative. Also remove the small rocks and gravel... anything in there should be twice the size of his head.

[kragar]

Wow! All this time we thought MsT was female. I'll adjust the heater some more and we'll replace the rocks. Thanks again.

[Kansasslider]

Yea that's a Mr T. Good job on the rehab!

[devilduck]

The long finger nails kinda give away that MsT is in fact MrT! Note the resemblance:

[kragar]

He's doing sooo much better. The tank was too hot. I'll have to get used to my RES being a 'he'. Since I won't be able to get that image of MrT out of my head, we may have to change the name. My RES (formerly MsT) is real personable. Thanks for all the suggestions.

http://youtu.be/S2edLo3tGKk

[Kansasslider]

Kragar , what kind of bulb are you useing?

[kragar]

Sorry I haven't checked back in awhile. Just had to replace MsT's lamp, but still got a 50 watt UVA bulb. This one is a All Living Things Heodymium basking bulb and he's basking as I type this.

Even though she is a he, we still call him MsT - just with a deeper voice ;o). When we first rescued him last June, his claws were down to nubs so we assumed femaie. He's doing soo much better - platform is around 90 and water 80.

[Kansasslider]

Your turtle needs a UVB bulb such as a reptiglow or reptisun 5.0 or 10.0. As for heat you can just use a regular light bulb.The all living things bulb has no UVB output and is really just a waste of your money.

[penelope]

The All Living Things is good for heat, but like Kansasslider said you can use a using a plain old incandescent bulb in the future. In the meantime - Hey! now you know MsT likes heat
Just go get a UVB light. You don't need anything fancy.

[kragar]

In the year since our RES found us, the red is fading from his ears. Is this a vitamin deficiency or could it be the new basking lamp?

[steve]

It's not unusual for it to fade a bit but most likely he's becoming melanastic.