General Care Discussion :: Normal shell??

[TNTurtles]

I was just wondering if this is normal for a 3 month old's shell to do this. I'm not too worried about her b/c she acts completely normal. Just thought Id make sure. You can see the clear/purplish lines in b/w each scute. She has also started to develop this white patch right in the middle of her shell. Its not soft, does not smell, just thought it might be part of her shell for now. Maybe a scar or something?

In the water...


on the dock...

[jenaero]

looks like he's got some abnormal scutes but that's fine. As for the lines in between, looks like he's growing too fast. How much/how often/what are you feeding? Not sure about the white marks. Mine had that and it went away on it's own.

[TNTurtles]

i feed her just a head full every morning...i used to overfeed both of them b/c they wouldn't eat that much. So id just throw alot of food in the bowl and hope they ate some. I guess she got healthy before i started cutting the food back down to head size and ate too much =\ I feed them zoomed hatchling pellets and romaine lettuce.
Is it dangerous for her to be like this? I dont feed her like that anymore but there is a plentiful amount of lettuce in their tank for her to feed on at any time.
As for her scutes she has always had 2 vertebral scutes. I love it, makes her unique!

[marisa]

That is a wonderful pattern of scutes on the carapace. The area in between them is the seam and it shows that your turtle is growing. You might want to cut back on the protein/pellets a bit to slow the growth down.

[TNTurtles]

ok so no big deal, just growing too fast =) Ill keep up the tough love and only feed the proper amount. Thanks alot for your advice.

[missibsu]

It's not really 'no big deal', but as long as you are keeping an eye on your turt, and keeping up the tough love, good for you. Along with over feeding comes over weight and undue stress on internal organs. Things that you can't even see. So, good deal on the tough love. I'm the same way. Mine beg all the time. Even when they have greens in the tank.