Posted: Sun May 28, 2017 10:59 pm Re: Eating scutes?
In recent months, Hurricane has developed a habit of trying to eat scutes. She'll bite off tiny pieces and spit them out, which makes cleaning them out of the tank a real pain. What's kind of funny but also morbid is she only goes after the scutes of her tank-mate/half sister, Typhoon, which is technically cannibalism, although she doesn't fully ingest the scutes. So yes, turtles do go after scutes (though my other two have the sense not to do that).
I attribute this to a desire for calcium. Any time I see my turtles trying to nibble on rocks, shells, or scutes like Hurricane does, then I know they are craving some calcium. We feed them a calcium rich diet, but sometimes they'll still need a supplement, so I get them some cuttlebone to munch on. (I also like to grind up the cuttlebone into a fine powder and dust it on the blueberries and/or strawberries we give them, which also does the trick).
Spike - Egyptian mau mix, 8 years old
Phryne - Japanese bobtail, 9 months old
Hurricane - RES, 8 yo, 6 1/2 in. long
Typhoon - RES/Map hybrid, 8 yo, 7 in. long
Sadie - RES, 20 yo, 10 in. long
Sophie - Colombian red tail boa, 5 yo, 5 ft. long