Urgent Care :: Should I Be Concerned?

[evilbeef]

I've had my turtle less than a year and he is my first one. When I got him I read all about RES so I think im doing this right, but there is so much to learn about them.

I have a 55 gal tank he's abt 4 or so inches, I bought him from a pet store and got the smallest one because at the time I had a smaller tank. I have a basking area and uvb light and a heat light. And two filters my boy friend made. He has lots of experience with aquatics. The water is always clear and never smells. I've tried to feed him in a separate container but ill leave him there for hours and he never eats.

I feed him red or green lettuce every day. A piece about the size of my hand. Once or twice a week he gets some pellets with a smaller bit of lettuce. Every month I get him some fishys. He's gotten a couple crickets here and there. He seems happy, he basks he eats he's not that afraid of me, like he was when I first got him.

Now to the part where I'm not sure if I should be worried. I was reading about something where the turtle was clearly sick and one of the symptoms was a curling upward shell with transparent edges. My turtles shell is not curling but it is transparent on the edges. Is that normal? Is he missing something? I have some pictures to be helpful.




is his shell normal the scutes on the edge overlap and its pointy down the back bone


even his undershell is tranparent

[Diamondbacks4Life]

You turtle isnt sick in anyway. He just majorly retaining his scutes. Thats why edge of the scutes are overlaping along with the pointy edges. Usually caused by improper lighting with to much protein. Though setup sounds perfect along with his diet. So not sure why this happen.

It can take awhile till he sheds those scutes. The only things you can do it is feed him some blueberries here and there and look into finding koi pellets with wheat germ in them. These two items are susposed to help you turtle shed.

[evilbeef]

Oh thanks so much that's very helpful!

I got him about 4 months ago so hopefully it was something the breeder/pet store did that I can fix. He has a scute that's in half with another one growing out of it. I read about it online people were saying that some turtles are born that way and some get into accidents and they heal like that. I got him like that so I don't know what happened. Here's a picture. Do you think that could be contributed to him retaining his scutes?

[steve]

It's normal for some RES to have an extra scute or two and they don't normally cause problems. The rapid growth has just caused it to overlap like the others. You can probably skip the separate feeding container and fish. How many pellets does he get and could it be possible that someone is sneaking him food?

[evilbeef]

No I don't think any one is feeding him. And its rare that he gets pellets maybe once a week or twice if I remember. The fish are more for amusement. There's a lot of places for them to hide in my tank so he doesn't eat them all at once. I think im going to get some peat moss at the store some one said it would make my hard water soft. Also blueberries seem messy, and will frozen ones work just as good?

[Moose]

To me either way whether it's frozen or not it get a messy, but it helps A TON!

[evilbeef]

I thought I should give an update. My turtles scutes are still retaining. I've fed him blueberrys and stoped the pellets altogether, but that didnt seem to help. Now I feed him the wheat germ koi pellets every day and about once/twice a week I give him some greens. Lately its been red leaf lettuce and kale. The same fish are still in there. I think they're all friends, or he's to silly to catch them. I've replaced his uvb/uva lamp once already.

But my new question is. Why has he still not shed? Hes gotten the koi pellets for about a month now. His scutes seem to be getting loose? I don't want to tug on em too hard. But my concern is really that his plastron (sp?) is flexable down by his tail. Is that normal? I wouldn't quite call it soft. But deffinatly has enough give for me to wonder if it's always been like that.

Also I want to put more calcium in his diet, but he shows absolutely no interest in his cuttle bone. What's weird is some times he'll go after the sulfa block. Now, when I have it in there, I hide it. Any ideas?

[steve]

How often is he basking?

[evilbeef]

I just want to make another update! He finally shed all his scutes...it took a long time tho and lots of those koi pellets lol. About 6 months ago they just started pealing off. And now hes all pretty! I see all the time that people wonder about their turtles shells and what is normal and what is not. I just wanted to share this graphic I made explaining the process. Feel free to share it if you think it is helpful.

1. a retained scute
2. a pealing scute
3. nice pretty new shell

[steve]

Nice, can you post a larger pic? Also I wouldn't consider #1 to be a retained scute... marginals often look like that.