redearslider.com

my two yr old res will eat his/her own shell.
while he/she shedding his shell, he will find it on the bottom
of the tank and will eat it. Once i saw him throw it up,
then try to eat it again.
is this normal, giving him nutrients???



appologize for the low quality phone pic.

Yep!! These guys will eat almost anything. I think you are talking about their own scutes. They will eat their own poop and try and recycle it. I try and get the scutes out when I clean the tank, but they beat me to it most of the time.

Yes, they will eat anything. i too think you should try to get to the scutes before Roudy does because they are probably not digestible and might cut him inside.

i agree, sometimes ill take the scutes off this shell, just prior to falling off.
i know thats not 100% correct, but i dont want him/her to get hurt by them,

As long as you're very careful not to pull off a scute that's not ready to come off that's ok. when they are very loose and come off very easily then sometimes I do the same thing. Some people on here have tried to pull off scutes before they are ready and have damaged their turtle's shell.

thanks for the conformation.
i wait till air can get under them before i take them off.
gently sliding them off, making sure roudy has hard shell
underneath so not to damage him/her.

Well, he wouldn't be getting any nutrients from eating his scutes---to me, it would be like a person biting their fingernails and eating them (both scutes and nails are made of keratin). I'll bet he's just testing them to see if they're edible---did he actually eat the one that he spit out?. I often find scutes on bottom of my turtle's tanks when they're shedding. I don't know if they've tried to eat them, but rather doubt it.

I gentally took my turtle's scute off too, you can use your finger nail and pick it to see if it's easy to slide off, I also found a couple inside the tank but thank goodness she didn't eat them(or she tried and gave up)

by the way, is it normal that turtle shed off the scute about once a year? how often do they shed?