Urgent Care :: Painter maybe in trouble

[laturcotte]

I have raised RES mostly and I turtle sit once a year for Yertle the Painter Turtle (he is 2) . I have a couple questions. I sat him last year and he was just a little thing, the same size as my RES, he was lively and really happy. I had him two weeks and he grew about 1/4 inch. I got him this year and he is a little bit bigger than he was last year. My RES haven't been able to fit into their 20 gal tank for a long time but he has plenty of room, do they grown slower than RES. One more question, I had him 4 days and I picked a "scale", must be a piece of his shell from the bottom of the tank. It looks like a small fingernail. Yesterday when I cleaned the tank there were two more in the bottom of the tank. There is nothing he can rub on, when I take him out to inspect him there is no visible place these are missing from. I have never seen this with my RES.

He will be going home Monday and I want to make sure to tell them but I don't want to alarm them if they have never seen these before. I know one thing he is just the happiest little thing.

Lee Ann

[Starchick]

Shedding scutes is normal. I can't speak for growth rates, but all turtles do grow at different speeds, it can depend on diet and other factors. I think RES do tend to get bigger than painteds eventually. Maybe someone else who's raised both can answer you for sure.

[marisa]

I've got 4 male Eastern Painteds who will be 3 years old in late fall, and one male RES who recently passed the 5-year mark. I've had the painteds since they came out of the nest. Painteds are smaller than RES when fully grown, especially males, and they are growing more slowly than my RES did (his growth slowed down after he reached 4 years of age, though)

The painteds will shed scutes and don't really need anything to rub on (although if there's anything in the tank, they still may find a way to rub a little, even crawling on the basking area will help off the plastron scutes). My RES will rub against things, but I've never noticed my painteds doing so.
When a scute becomes really loose, swimming through the water will eventually pull it off. I've found a number of scutes on the basking area, and I know their plastron gets rubbed when they climb on and off of it. (This also happens with my RES.)

Earlier in the year I found 14 scutes at the bottom of a tank with two EPs in it. The rest of the scutes were noticeably loose and quickly followed.

It would be good to do a little reading on painteds. Their requirements are similar to RES, but there are still subtle differences between them.

[steve]

Marisa, are all your turtles males?

[laturcotte]

My two are female RES. One I have had 2 years the other was given to me recently, she came to me pregnant (what a surprise) delivered 16 eggs one day (we kept them incubated for 30 or so days but they never hatched) and then about 1 week later delivered 2 more eggs, which did not survive. I really didn't want them to hatch, there are to many unwanted RES in the world and I couldn't take care of any more. The painter I have right now is a male and I am only turtle sitting, when he started to loose scutes I was worried, he's not mine.

Thank you everyone for all your help, now I know a little more.

[marisa]

Yes, all of my turtles are males. (I posted a while back that when I entered the room they're in, I'm the center of attention and have the eyes of a bunch of young males upon me. )

[steve]

laturcotte, female turtles can become gravid without males and lay unfertilized eggs. Eggs can take anywhere between 60 to 80 days to hatch if properly taken care of.

marisa, I don't know what to say! Must be a lot of excitement there