General Care Discussion :: help! Does yours have a white thin "coat" under it

[fatin]

Hi, I bought my turtles on Jan 16th, they're tiny little dudes, not more than 1.5" long shells. I noticed that one of them has some sort of a thin white coat that comes out from under the shell, it was mostly by his head but now even from behind, I tried washing him in warm water and it went away but it keeps coming back.
do you know what it is? I really appreciate all the info you can give me since there are no vets for turtles here.

thanks again.

[freshprince2146]

hmmm.... sound like he"s shedding his skin.

Is there anyway you can post pics?

[Kemul]

Looks like skin shedding, like freshprince said. Usually, it's caused by the water
too warm or over-feeding. As long as the shedding is not very heavy, it should be
alright. Don't have to worry too much about it.

[fatin]

I'll post some pictures but yeah i don't think i should be worried because she (i think it's a she) seems to be fine, she eats and swims and basks...but her shell is almost 2 inches, very tiny, isn't it too early for her to shed skin?

thanks to both of you

[freshprince2146]

No my turtles are less then 2 inches long and they shed their skin around once a month.

How to you know its a she??

[fatin]

I read somewhere that females have a bigger shell & a smaller tail, so in comparison to the other little dude that I have, this one is much bigger with a much shorter tail...she's fiesty and active, I have an inner feeling it's a she that's all...nothing solid. Need to read more on how soon will I be able to verify it.

[worldpeace]

You really can't know the gender of the turtles until they're about 4 inches.

[freshprince2146]

^^ YUPP @ 4 inches if she does not have wolverine claws its a female. But 2 inches is way too small to tell.