General Care Discussion :: Large Seams?

[talal]

Hello everybody, specially you Steve! I read a while ago on some thread you were pointing out that a turtle had large dark seams possibly due to over feeding = fast growth. I have been wondering since to post some pictures of my turtles, two of them seem fine but one I am concerned about regarding this particular aspect.

I feed them couple pellets everyday ( 3 - 4 reptomin baby each ) and a green lettuce leaf divided amongst them all. I hand feed them so I know exactly how much each turtle is eating. They occassionally get shrimp and during the two months I have had them they've had a few minnows and 2 goldfish nothing over kill it was all spaced out.

1) Red

Shell: this one looks fine to me

Side: Here's another one from the side

[talal]

2) Heisenberg

Shell: He is the biggest of them all and I know this is too soon but looking at his size Im thinking he might actually be a she. Also notice how there are dark yellow lines on the shell, is this a regular thing or maybe some sort of slight morph?

Side: He seems fine aswell, pretty slick

[talal]

3) Waffles

Shell: Now this one I am worried about, he is the heaviest of them all. Even though they all pretty much eat the same amount of food he weighs the most. Plus for some reason the other two have grown longer while he has grown wider. Maybe it's a yellow belly thing? This one is a YBS the other two are RES.

The seams are kind of dark and thick

Side: He is so damn wide

[Into_the_Mystic]

Looks a bit wide to me and a bit of pyramiding. Perhaps he is getting the most of the food.

[steve]

I agree that Waffles needs a bit less food. Any chance some one is sneaking them food? I don't think Red and Heisenberg are 100% sliders, hopefully someone better than me at IDing will chime in.

[talal]

Pyramiding really? I should give him more veggies and cut the protein. I don't think anyone is sneaking in food. I could tell there was something different about Red and Heisenberg, what is your guess?

[talal]

I think I got my answer for Heisenberg he/she is a Rio Grande RES this pic http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2773/414 ... a4f8e6.jpg looks just like him.

[steve]

I'd lean towards Rio Grande for Red as well.

[talal]

I got them from a reptile expo. I saw two vendors one was selling res for 5 dollars each, the other was selling them for 13 but I noticed he had two ( heisenberg and red ) with really bright colors so I watched them for a while and they seemed really active and healthy so I bought them. I got waffles from him as well.

[steve]

Did the vendor label them in anyway?

[talal]

I'm not sure, all I was paying attention to was Red Ear sliders.