General Care Discussion :: shedding skin

[dcaron1217]

Hello.....I have been taking care of my son's (he's in college) one year old red eared slider.

The turtle just turned one year old on Feb 21, 2007.
She is in a 10 gallon tank, with heater and filter, together with a basking ledge and yellow light bulb that is on from about 8:00 am to 8:00 pm.

Since he brought her home as a hatchling she was fed hatchling food pellets and then we introduced Krill (very small pieces)

Two weeks ago I went to the pet store to get more krill and came home to notice they were the full size krill, still freeze dried though. I just break them up and feed with the pellets. I feed her every other day taking her out of the tank to feed because she's messy.

My concern is as of a week ago, her skin is shedding under her neck and on her back feet and even her shell. She is very bright eyed and has lots of energy and always eats when I feed her. I feed in a separate container.

Am I doing something wrong all of a sudden? It has been since I have been feeding her this new krill. Is there too much protein?

Please help. If I kill this turtle, my son will never forgive me. HELP and thank you.

Deb

[SpotsMama]

I guess that makes you a turtle grandmama>

You should read up on turtle nuitrition. Here's a link. Too rich a diet will cause excessive skin shedding (along with other long term problems), and that's probably what's happening. You should cut way back on the krill and only feed it once in a while as a treat. Instead of krill, you should feed her veggies - mainly green leafy things like leaf lettuce supplimented with occasional servings of other types of fruit and vegetable. It's all there in the link:

http://www.redearslider.com/index_nutrition.html

The second thing to do is read up on lighting and basking. Here's a link with the basics. It's very important that she get to bask under a good UVB light bulb so that she can absorb the calcium she eats. Turtles need a lot of calcium for healthy shell and bones, especially when they are young and growing. Light is linked to nuitrition in the calcium absorption process. The yellow light bulb isn't providing the UVB that she needs.

http://www.redearslider.com/index_lighting_basking.html

Then, why don't you read up on the other aspects of a good turtle setup - tank size, water quality, temperature, etc. You'll probably find you have other questions as you go along, so feel free to ask away!

[dcaron1217]

thank you thank you thank you so much for the help.
I'm going out to get uvb light and to get more pellets.
I think some romaine lettuce leaves would be good to start her on.
thanks again.
great reading here.
Deb-turtle grandmama