General Care Discussion :: Complicated ... and confused!

[Castalaia]

Hello everyone... New to the forum.
I will try to make this long story short.
I was given a 4 yr old RES by a co worker. Not ever owning a turtle before I really didnt know much about it. So we got online and started trying to find out all we could. Heck we didnt even know it was RES.
Come to find out our turtle Jo has been living in the wrong kind of habit for quite some time. 4yrs to be exact. So we went out bought everything from a bigger turtle tank to the filtering system. Lights... heater etc and so on. Well she does seem much happier.
Here is the reason for the long story and post. We are wondering... Jo seems to have excessive amount of skin shedding. Only around the legs and bottom. Looks like a light coat of cotton. We wanted to know is this normal? Or could it be the lack of appropriate water and basking area cause some trama to her skin? Or is it that she is growing and this is just normal? She has shed her back scales twice now.
We have had her about two months.
Thanks for the help!

[rachel16]

ya its normaul jo is growing.

[RunninWideOpen]

completely normal. my two younger ones did the exact same thing when I first got them; they were also kept in very poor conditions for the first couple years of their life. they shedded a lot at first, but are now on a normal schedule.

[Castalaia]

Thanks so much for the replies! Thats def a relief!

[steve]

If the water is excessively warm, then they will tend to shed more. Your turtle should have water temps around 75-78F. Make sure you are using a thermometer to accurately measure the temps.

And normal shedding should look thin, translucent and wispy. It is hardly visible when the turtle is out of the water.

[SpotsMama]

There is also a skin fungus condition that looks similar to shedding. A turtle that lived in dirty water could have picked up something like that. Does her skin have a slimy feel?

If it's just skin shedding due to water temps that are too high, then once the temp is lowered you should see a reduction in the shedding after a few days.