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I've been wondering about RES hatchling colors. My hatching RES has very vibrant greens in her skin and shell:



She even has some yellows, lines on her scutes and around her shell. However, I've noticed other hatchlings are a more muted green with hardly any bright markings at all. Like, daredevilgirl013, your little Michelangelo ( http://www.redearslider.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2616 ) is very much a lighter shade of green than my Veronica.

Is it just a difference of diets or are baby sliders just as unique in outward appearance as baby humans are?

They are all just unique. I had 3 turtles and their shells were all different and still are. Just an easy way to be able to tell them apart while they are still small Their colors change as they get older. Less vibrant and more muted but the pattern usually stays the same on the shell, although the plastron (bottom) seems to change a bit more.

I was just so curious about it. Sometimes you look at hatchlings and they are so different you'd think they are a different breed of turtle.

Michelangelo will have a darker looking shell when he is wet, the one where he is really light I had the flash of the camera on and he was dried off. In the water he looks just about as bright as yours, but he's still a little bit lighter.

When Veronica is dry she gets bit lighter too.