General Care Discussion :: Male has lost colour

[paul@punch]

Hi,

My turtle is a male around 6-8yrs old. I feed him turtle pellets and the occasional worm or feeder fish. He has some good UV bulbs that i change every 6months but i have noticed from when i first got him all those years ago he has lost the red stripe on his face and not a green as he use to be. Is this just age or maybe a lack of something?

[SpotsMama]

Is he overall as dark as he has always been, darker, or paler?

The red stripe often gets less obvious over time. On my turtle, who is a five year old male, the red stripe is becoming darker and blacker looking. This is normal.

Also, baby turtles who are bright green become overall (skin and shell) darker and browner or blacker over time. Adults will range from a rich caramel color to almost solid black with some yellow skin striping and yellow on the plastron still showing. Turtles that spend a lot of time in the sun are often darker than those that are indoors all the time.

Does this sound like your turtle? Can you post photos of your turtle?

I'm going to move this topic to General Care rather than Urgent Care where it will fit better. Urgent Care is for topics where people need help immediately for a turtle that is sick or injured.

[steve]

The shells get darker as they age, though their skin does become a bit grayer too (at least mine have). As for the stripe, it can fade and I've noticed that RES with the fade type of stripe get darker at the base. Perhaps you can post a picture so we can compare him to some of the others?

[mzkitty23]

I know Krueger's Red streak got noticably brighter after I started feeding him occasional Krill...I assume it's from the beta-cerotene). So, if you want to make it brighter, that might help. I would think that if he's not eating vegetables (u didn't mention that he eats those) that would cause more muted color pigments too. If he don't get veggies he is probably lacking that nourishment in his diet.

[SpotsMama]

Mzkitty23 makes a good point. When I started feeding Spot foods containing beta carotene (carrots, sweet potato for instance) his yellow places turned a bright yellow-orange. Very pretty.

[Tenodera]

Yup, if you are concerned about his colour, add a bit more carrot and krill/shrimp in his diet.

Also, some time in the warm sun also helps.