I have a turtle who's several months old. He's nearly doubled in size since I got him back in early May. At first I thought he had some really intense spacing between his scutes, but I'm beginning to notice shell markings bleeding up through the black spaces and it looks like (significantly larger) scutes are forming under his current scutes. His current scutes have a defined 'raised' appearance to their edges although they don't seem even remotely loose. Does this mean that he's on his way to shedding? And if so, is it normal for them to shed this early in life? There's another thread that says their four-year-old turtle is shedding for the first time; Enbi can't be more than 6 months old.
He also appears to be shedding his skin. I recently did a full-clean on his tank and overnight white, transparent flakes--kind of like when we people get sunburns and start to peel--have appeared on top of the water. How can I know for sure? He's still really pretty small so I can't get a great look at him, though his skin seems healthy and smooth. I don't have a camera good enough to get a picture of his scutes, otherwise I would.
