My turtle is about 6 years old and his shell is 5 inches long. I've had him for about 2 years now and he has had all the proper care since i've had him, but for the first 4 years of his life he suffered various degrees of neglect.
When i first met him, a friend's little sisters had brought 2 hatchling RES's back from vacation and had them in one of those awfull little plastic bowls with a palm tree. There was no filter, no light or heat source, and worst of all the food was being offered in a little dish on the island so they never ate any of it. Now i didn't know all of the requirements of these turtles, but i knew that this wasn't good at all. Not suprisingly, in a few weeks one of them was dead, so my friend and i decided that the remaining turtle would be happier in his fish tank so we put him in. He swam around and was happy, and quickly ate all of his fish. My friend got some turtle food and a piece of bark for him to sit on, but that's all. At the time i didn't know this wasn't adequate so i was just happy that he was in a better situation.
Three years later my friend moved and wasn't able to take the turtle, so another friend of mine took him over. In her care he recieved a basking light (but no UVB light) and i got him a turtle dock so he could enjoy it. He was fed on a reguar basis for the first time in his life and really seemed to be thriving. After a while i ended up with him, and being the animal lover that i am, i researched the proper care of my new best friend and realized he needed a few upgrades, so i got him a much bigger tank, a better filter, a water heater, and a UVB light. I didn't know not to feed him as many pellets as he wanted every day unill i came across this helpful site, but that has now been corrected. So that's the history behind this question.
I've noticed that besides being smaller than he should be for his age, his shell isn't formed quite right, some of the scutes are kind of indented. i'd post some pictures but i don't have a camera, i tried to take some with a disosable camera to scan in but they didn't come out too well. Anyway, i was wondering if he will ever get to be a normal size and if his shell will ever look like the beautiful smooth shells other people's turtles have. He's grown since i've had him and i think his shell is looking better than it did before but it's hard to say because i look at him everyday.
Even if he'll never look quite right or get so big, i'm still happy to be giving him the care he deserves but i was just curious as to whether the damage from the years of neglect is permanent.
