Incredibly thick shed scutes
Posted: Thu Feb 23, 2012 5:15 pmWhen I first got my female Frankie, I realized she had retained scutes. Over time, and with the occasional bit of help, she eventually shed almost all of them. This is an older picture of one of her shed scutes showing at least 4 layers.
The only ones that stuck fast were the ones above and below her tail:
Last November, I noticed 2 yellow crescent shapes at the bottom of her tank that I thought were leftover bits of squash (that I had given her the night before). I thought, that's odd that she left just two little wee bits, but Frankie is Frankie...
Scooped them out and was surprised to find they were hard! My first thought was, "Uh oh! Did a decoration or rock break?" But they were in fact scutes! These are the two long stuck scutes from her plastron, right under her tail.
They are really thick, as you can see here, at least .5cm at their widest point, and they're nearly as hard as rock. They really feel quite bizarre.
And they were in fact "shed" off as oppose to broken off, since there was no damage to her shell where they came off, it just looked like nice smooth shell.
So now the only two of her original scutes that haven't shed are the two on the top. I think they look like she's wearing a tux with tails
Every now and then when she gets nice and dry, I give them a bit of a wiggle, but they're on there fast. Hopefully one day they'll come off too!
The only ones that stuck fast were the ones above and below her tail:
Last November, I noticed 2 yellow crescent shapes at the bottom of her tank that I thought were leftover bits of squash (that I had given her the night before). I thought, that's odd that she left just two little wee bits, but Frankie is Frankie...
Scooped them out and was surprised to find they were hard! My first thought was, "Uh oh! Did a decoration or rock break?" But they were in fact scutes! These are the two long stuck scutes from her plastron, right under her tail.
They are really thick, as you can see here, at least .5cm at their widest point, and they're nearly as hard as rock. They really feel quite bizarre.
And they were in fact "shed" off as oppose to broken off, since there was no damage to her shell where they came off, it just looked like nice smooth shell.
So now the only two of her original scutes that haven't shed are the two on the top. I think they look like she's wearing a tux with tails
Every now and then when she gets nice and dry, I give them a bit of a wiggle, but they're on there fast. Hopefully one day they'll come off too!
)