General Care Discussion :: White Line in Middle of Shell?

[OyerbidesJ]

I just noticed that one of my babies has a whitesh line going down his shell, and some whiteness around then outer edge of his shell. I know I'm probably being paranoid but is this nothing to be worried about?



Also, I have another question about giving my turtle peices of cuttlebon, is He too small to eat it? how big/small should the peices be?[/img]

[steve]

It's somewhat normal.

You can try very small, bite-size pieces. If you want to add more calcium to his diet, try dusting his pellets with Rep-Cal Calcium.

[marisa]

It looks as though he perhaps rubbed his spine against something and slightly abraded the scutes. Do they look normal up close? I don't really see that much white on the marginal scutes...

Try to cut the piece of cuttlebone thin as well. You might let them sit in some water from canned tuna for a bit to give them some scent (and be more tempting to try to eat).

What pellet are you giving you turtle? If you're not already using it, get some Reptomin Baby, which has a bit more calcium in it than some of the other pellets (including regular Reptomin). RepCal (powdered calcium supplement) won't stick to pellets dry, so if you get some, moisten the pellets first, roll them in the powder (or put the powder and pellets in a plastic bag and shake it), let them dry and then give them to your turtle. Or, if your turtle will take the pellets from you hand, just feed the coated pellets to your turtle moist.

[OyerbidesJ]

the pellet i'm using is flukers aquatic turtle formula turtle diet, but i will definitely pick up some repcal.

but i sort of thought it could be from him rubbing against something because he has a sandstone bridge type thing i made that he zooms in and out of that he could have scraped it that way.

[marisa]

Try to find some Reptomin Baby as well and rotate it with the Flukers.