General Care Discussion :: Skin Shedding

[SebastianMillhouse]

My turtle is 2 inches long and I've him for almost 3 months. Lately I've noticed what looks like big flakes of skin peeling off of him. It's mostly on his neck and legs. It seems to come off if I wipe the area with a Q-tip. This is only visible underwater and would be extremely difficult to provide a picture of. I know that skin shedding is normal but I am not sure when or how often it should occur. I keep the water temp at 78 degrees.

Also, I've noticed that the overhanging part of his shell above his tail and hind legs is quite flexible.

[marisa]

The shedding skin is visible in the water and looks translucent and wispy? The new skin looks healthy? Have you noticed the shedding before?

They shed skin (and scutes) as they grow, but it's not skin shedding like a snake would. I occasionally see some wisps on my RES, but they then just disappear. He shed more when he was younger and growing faster that he does now (he's over 4 years old).

As for the flexible shell above the tail/hind legs, how old is he? Some flexibility in the area you described is not uncommon in hatchlings, and the shell hardens up at about a year. What's his diet like? Does he have a UVB light as well as a heat source (UVB lights are flourescent and don't give off heat, but the UVB rays they do give off are important for metabolizing Vit D3, which he needs to be able to absorb calcium to keep his shell and bones hard and healthy). It would be good to increase the calcium in his diet as well as making sure he has opportunity to bask under proper lighting or/and unfiltered sunlight.

[SebastianMillhouse]

Sebastian is about 3 months old. He was very tiny when I got him, now his shell is 2 inches long. This is the only soft area on his entire shell but it seems like that part is the thinnest. He has a UV and does bask in it. I don't know how often though, he seems to only do it in private. I've only caught him by sneeking up on him. He loves basking in natural sunlight when I occasionally put him in his outdoor container.

His diet includes about 6 or so pellets a day with some Romaine lettuce. Every few days he gets carrots and occaisionally grapes or apples. Is cuttlebone a good treatment for the soft area?

The whispy growth I mentioned in other posts is no longer there. We got rid of it with a sulfa dip and now we use a sulfa block conditioner. This works very well.

The recent stuff is different. It's definitely skin. It has a barely visible pattern on it and appears almost clear. It peels off in large flakes. My turtle actually ate one! He doesn't appear to be bothered by it, though.

[marisa]

I'd skip the sulfa block conditioner---it does little for your turtle, and long term use of products containing the drug (sulfa) is thought to make a turtle resistant to it. Normal shedding will stop on it's own.

I can't really imagine what this new stuff could be. I would stop using that sulfa block, though.

[sQuirtle]

I have the same problem also. sQuirtle's skin appears to be shedding exactly like you describe it, a "barely visible pattern" of skin looks like it's coming off.. on some parts like his head, it's just flakey... looks like you can just peel it off.

It just started a few days ago, after I removed his gravel & got him a floating basking dock. It looked like he wasn't really comfortable with the "renovation" yet because I hadn't seen him bask during those days. So I was thinking maybe his skin is shedding because he's been spending too much time in the water, kinda like how our human skin gets wrinkly wen we stay in water too much?

Just wana know if the skin shedding is normal??

[SpotsMama]

Our RES Spot shed a lot for the first year we had him. We first found him in November (cold) in the back yard and he was in bad shape. Dehydrated, starving. His poor skin came off in grey sheets. Over time he continued to shed but not as heavily as when he first came to live with us. Your turt's shedding sounds a lot like Spot's during that first year. These days he doesn't shed much. We never did anything specifically to treat him for the shedding, it just gradually slowed down.

[Mama_Mouse]

Once turtle is in proper living quarters and lighting
how long does it take for them to shed fully??

[missibsu]

Depends on the needs of the turtle really. The amount of growth and the conditions. I've had my turtles a little more than a year and neither have shed scutes. Both have had some minor skin shedding though.