General Care Discussion :: res eating his shell, after fallen off

[GMAK]

my two yr old res will eat his/her own shell.
while he/she shedding his shell, he will find it on the bottom
of the tank and will eat it. Once i saw him throw it up,
then try to eat it again.
is this normal, giving him nutrients???



appologize for the low quality phone pic.

[mikee]

Yep!! These guys will eat almost anything. I think you are talking about their own scutes. They will eat their own poop and try and recycle it. I try and get the scutes out when I clean the tank, but they beat me to it most of the time.

[SpotsMama]

Yes, they will eat anything. i too think you should try to get to the scutes before Roudy does because they are probably not digestible and might cut him inside.

[GMAK]

i agree, sometimes ill take the scutes off this shell, just prior to falling off.
i know thats not 100% correct, but i dont want him/her to get hurt by them,

[SpotsMama]

As long as you're very careful not to pull off a scute that's not ready to come off that's ok. when they are very loose and come off very easily then sometimes I do the same thing. Some people on here have tried to pull off scutes before they are ready and have damaged their turtle's shell.

[GMAK]

thanks for the conformation.
i wait till air can get under them before i take them off.
gently sliding them off, making sure roudy has hard shell
underneath so not to damage him/her.

[marisa]

Well, he wouldn't be getting any nutrients from eating his scutes---to me, it would be like a person biting their fingernails and eating them (both scutes and nails are made of keratin). I'll bet he's just testing them to see if they're edible---did he actually eat the one that he spit out?. I often find scutes on bottom of my turtle's tanks when they're shedding. I don't know if they've tried to eat them, but rather doubt it.

[RESCHIU]

I gentally took my turtle's scute off too, you can use your finger nail and pick it to see if it's easy to slide off, I also found a couple inside the tank but thank goodness she didn't eat them(or she tried and gave up)

[RESCHIU]

by the way, is it normal that turtle shed off the scute about once a year? how often do they shed?