Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2008 4:41 am
Hi larqw,
Toutolina's shell doesn't look normal. The edges shouldn't be curling up like that and the top of her shell should be more dome shaped. Giving her space to swim in is definitely a step in the right direction. Other areas that are critical for shell health are light (basking under a good UVB bulb) and diet.
On the light, whatever light you have for the fish won't provide the UVB that she needs in order to metabolize calcium. The needs of fish are quite different. Turtles have to have UVB light or the calcium they eat won't be absorbed and they will develop bone and shell problems. What size tank is toutolina in? If the tank is large enough, you can use an MVB bulb, which is an all-in-one bulb that provides both the heat and the UVB that a turtle needs. If the tank is small, then you'll need two separate bulbs over the basking area - one for heat and one for UVB.
On the diet, why don't you read up on nuitrition on this site if you haven't read it recently. There's a gold mine of info there.
For veggies, a grown turtle like Toutolina needs fresh veggies every day - as much as she wants. Green leaf lettuce and red leaf lettuce are good choices. Also, certain aquatic plants like anacharis are great because you can leave them in the tank and they won't spoil like lettuce. For variety, on some days she can have carrot shavings, a piece of bell pepper, some tomato, apple peal, sweet potato, or blue berries. Variety is the key.
On the pellets, are you familiar with the hollow-head rule? She should have as many good quality pellets as would fit in her head (if it were hollow) every other day. If you want to divide up the amount so that she gets several small meals instead of one big one, that's fine, but be sure she doesn't get more (or less) in total than she should have.
On the cuttlebone, don't give up. Lot's of turtles are slow to figure out how good the cuttlebone is but eventually they catch on. She may not eat on it every day but when she feels the need for calcium then she will nibble on it. You can leave pieces of cuttlebone in the tank all the time for her to graze on when she feels like it. Cuttlebone is the best readily available source of calcium for a turtle.
One more question - I see gravel in the bottom of the tank with fish in it. I suppose that's for fish only and there isn't any gravel in the turtle's tank. Is that right? Gravel is fine for fish (and pretty!) but it's a health hazzard for turtles, as you probably know.
SpotsMama
Toutolina is still doing great! I don't know what's going on, but for some reason he's really strong. I'll go out and come back home and the 10+ pound rock that he basks on will be on the other side of the tank! 
It's so funny...still very energetic and playing rough and loves to bask for hours each day. Will eat my fingers, if I allow it BUT still won't touch the cuttlebone. Maybe he has enough calcium already.
Tortuga's hands are still not better and I'm beginning to wonder if the damage might be permanent. Still swims around though and eats...just can't put pressure on the front limbs. For some reason, she really enjoys the dark (her tank has a little tunnel and she loves hanging out in there). Other than the hand issue, everything is normal. I can see that the skin wants to shed, but it's not coming off 
)...and those are their lovely fish friends.
Any treatment?
I'm really willing to do whatever it takes to make it better, so please help me out and THANKS for noticing!
