General Care Discussion :: Nothing I Do Helps My Turtle's Shell!

[Meta]

For years my turtle has had retained scutes, dry looking scutes, bubbly scutes, all of that. It has had proper uvb, not blocked, for 2 years. But it just cant seem to shed scutes. Im super annoyed, and dont know what to do.

[worldpeace]

How's it's diet? An improper diet can also be part of the problem.

[Meta]

i give green leaf lettuce and pellets.

[mike hill]

Met - If you have the proper diet,temps, lighting, clean water I would suggest that you try and drycocking him in a warm box. That lets the scutes get really dry and may help. Good Luck!

[BullDog]

Have you been replacing the UVB bulb at least once a year? Some only last about 6 months, and some last a bit longer, up to a year, but they do need to be replaced frequently.

Have you tried feeding foods that are high in Vitamin E? Foods like sweet potato, blueberry, apple peel, tomatoes, turnip greens have a good amount of vitamin E which can help with retained scutes.

Finally, have you noticed any change in his shell in the last two years? I've had my gal Frankie for 2 years, and she had retained scutes when I got her. It took me a couple months before I noticed that she had a couple of layers of retained scutes, and a couple more months to get her to eat anything with vitamin E in it. Only recently has she started to shed some scutes, maybe about one a month. She still has a long way to go, but surly but steadily the scutes are shedding.
She finally decided she likes sweet potato a couple of months ago, but before that I was sneaking her vit. E foods in the turtle jello shots you can find stickied in the food forum.

Basically, it can take a while for those scutes to shed.

[duck215]

There is also a shell conditioner that you can apply to the shell. As long as everything else is in order this might help. I apply it to my turtles every few months. It really brings out the colors in the shell and makes them look very nice. Ill find the name of it and add another post on here. it has worked wonders on one of mine that had a big problem with scutes a while back. (and works wonders on your finger nails too.....