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Happy Mother's Day...turtle owners!
I inherited this turtle about a month ago.
He had lived on pellets only.
I have since varied his diet, but do you think his shell looks sick?
I have no knowledge of RES, other than what I have since read and learned here.



What do you think?

thank you in advance~Chris

Looks like he needs a good shell shed and maybe has some mineral deposits on his shell. Does he look that white when he's wet?

Yep, he looks that white when wet (he's wet in the pic)
His shell is colorless.
What should I do?
Thanks!

I suggest some veggies and calcium along with the pellets. Is you water extreemly hard. Some of the colors may be mineral deposits.

When I got Zeke he was 5 years old and lived strictly on Pellets. I changed that, he now gets a varied diet of Veggies (took a while for him to like them), pellets, occasional Fruit, and Vitamin/Calcium supplements. His shell has changed colors since I got him, it took till his first good scute shed though. He looks much better now. I've had him for almost 2 years now. When I first got him he had vitamin deficiencies, my vet gave him an injection of vitamins to get him started which really helped.

I would agree that he probably has some mineral deposits on his shell. As for the lack of Color, Zeke was a lot more pale when I first got him, he is now a dark brownish color, and looks much better.

Thank you heather. I also am noticing his reluctance to try new foods...the only thing he has taken to is crickets...seems to love those! But, other food groups have been very slow going. I wont give up

Don't give up, it took weeks for Zeke to try new things, his favorites are Carrots, cucumbers, zucchini and tomatoes (some of which are ONLY offered sparingly). Just keep on trying, try adding the same thing EVERY day, that way he won't be confused by all the new stuff. Zeke loves Grasshoppers, Shrimp, Guppies (if he can catch them). (again those are only offered sparingly. Now there is barely something that Zeke won't eat....except any of the Green Rod shaped pellets, he won't touch those for some reason.

Uh oh, looks like someone has mineral deposits! I know it well...Sheba had this issue for many yrs since we had hard water.

Mineral deposits aren't unhealthy for the turtle, it just LOOKS bad. Once the turtle sheds a few times, the shell staining will go away. Make sure you have the proper lighting, are feeding the proper veggies/pellets, and see if you can get the turtle into softer water (maybe get a water softener if you have hard water in your area).

Unfortunately there is no way to get rid of the stains on the shell once they are there.....you just have to wait for the turtle to shed the stained scutes.