General Care Discussion :: Skin shedding... normal?

[inkjoeyink]

Hey how's it going? So my friend gave me this turtle this week and just today he started to do this... I looked through the forum and saw some other topics but what they were talking about was different from what mine's experiencing... It's like dead skin around his neck and on 2 of his feet... here's some pics.

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[DavidY]

That looks like shedding to me. That's a normal part of a turtle's growth. My turtles shed a lot after i first rescued them. I'm not sure if it has something also to do with a drastic change in water conditions, but it's nothing to be worried about. What is the temperature of the water? If the temps are on the high side the turtle will shed more often.

Please read through the http://www.redearslider.com/index_basic_care.html section on this website. Also take a look at the other guides on there about habitat and nutrition. There's a lot of very good information there on how to properly care of your turtle.

A couple of things I noticed from your pictures is the water needs to be deeper as all aquatic turtles are excellent swimmers and prefer to have a lot of room to swim. Also, gravel is deadly to turtles since they can eat them and become impacted. A lot of people have had their turtles suffer and die because of this. Xrays showed the turtle's stomachs completely full of gravel and they were unable to pass them. The gravel also traps a lot of waste and will become like a cesspool.

[industrial_girl_2000]

DavidY summed it all up nicely!

[inkjoeyink]

Kay, thanks so much! About the amount of water, the set up I have going the owner of the turtle before told me to that this was "proper" until I started to read last night on this site. So I'm going today to pick up a bit larger tank so MurderFace(his name) can stretch his legs a bit. Again, thanks a bunch! Myself and MurderFace appreciate it.