General Care Discussion :: Shedding Skin?

[kiwi1712]

Hey guys,

as some of you know I am a new RES owner and have had Sassy for about 2-3 weeks now. From the moment I got her she's been shedding her shell, which is no big deal, but I've noticed some other things that I'm not sure is normal? It looks like on her skin (chin, arms and legs) she has something hanging off. It would make sense to me that to grow, they shed their shells for them to get bigger, is this true for everything else too? It looks like a clear stringy/skin like substance hanging off her.

Also, after a few weeks of her not touching the guppies in her tank...2 are now missing..I was starting to like the little guys

[Bladedvixen]

what you are describing is perfectly normal. RES shed their skin all the time so the little "stringies" hanging off Sassy are fine.

sorry about the guppies... tis a cruel circle of life

[Raphulk]

It looks like on her skin (chin, arms and legs) she has something hanging off. It would make sense to me that to grow, they shed their shells for them to get bigger, is this true for everything else too? It looks like a clear stringy/skin like substance hanging off her.

from my experience with my new turtles they did this too. but once it got really bad and it was all over them. its nothing horrible and it doesnt really hurt the turtles. I think it was some kind of bacteria from dirty water. BUT everyonce in a while my turtles still have it now and i think that its just natural shedding. So if your water seems clean and your turtles have that bacteria strings then its probably shedding im guessing

[mikee]

Normal, normal, normal. They shed thier scutes as well as their skin. Keep your water, filter clean and your water and basking temps where they need to be and you will be fine. Give them plenty of calcium in their diet and your good to go.

[kiwi1712]

Thanks so much guys!
Her water is crystal clear. I have a great fluval filter, and her water temp and mercury vapor light are at the correct temperatures. She gets pellets every other day, and green leaf lettuce the days she doesn't get pellets...and now apparently she has made the guppies a part of her diet!

A new thing I noticed last night is that she was trying to bite one of the large rocks in her tank. Why do they do this? Is she just bored? Do they do this kind of weird stuff in the wild?

[marisa]

If she's biting at it, she'll likely start fluttering at it with her paws. My RES does this all the time. He has a few favorite rocks that he flutters at, and when they don't "respond" to him, he'll nip at them.

I don't know for sure if they do this in the wild, but I tend to doubt it. They aren't confined to one place in the wild and have other concerns (finding a mate, foraging for food, keeping clear of predators, etc.).

[PcBuilder14]

Yeah, I kind of can't wait to see mine do that, if he's a male!

[SpotsMama]

Spot (a male) lives outside in the summer in a 500 gallon pond. I put some river rocks in there to anchor a water lily awhile back. The water lily's long gone but the other day I saw Spot down on the bottom of the pond fluttering at one of the river rocks.

[PcBuilder14]

Funny!

[crackerlady2007]

I had actually never seen Mr. Turtle do that until I added Mrs. Turtle. He was pretty excited to see her the first time. That was before I found this place and I wondered what in the WORLD that was supposed to mean. I'm glad they like each other. So far they get along very well. He swims around fluttering at her, and she either enjoys it, or swims to the other side of the tank like, "Oh, its just you again. Well, I'm not interested right now. Good bye!" It's really fun to watch them and pretend what they're saying to each other.