General Care Discussion

My turtle has grown rapidly--nearly an inch in the past two months--and while I've had a lot of people tell me this is normal, I'm having my doubts. I only feed him about a head's worth of ZooMed hatchling pellets a day--head, not head & neck!--and tried to switch his diet to primarily greens, but was chastised for this decision, as apparently, rapid growth or not, he needs his protein intake at such a young age.

But I'm getting worried. Some of you may have remembered me talking about the excess spacing between his scutes? Well it turns out, those were new scutes forming. They're not green yet; they're still a darker black, but there's definitely new scutes there an d they're highly visible--twice the surface size of his old scutes, which are still there.

I know this doesn't sound like a big problem but his old scutes are very thick and very pronounced, giving his back almost a little stair-step effect. He looks like he's pyramiding. I'm seeing little bits of something floating on the water surface, like a layer of skin almost, and I don't know if he's slowly wearing down his old scutes or what. I can't get a picture, ym cellphone camera is not good enough to get a clear photo of his tiny scutes, but regardless, I'd desperately like help. I'm paranoid that I've somehow screwed up and Enbi is going to suffer for it the rest of his life. I want to know what I should do about his diet--I'm following the site guideline of a headful of pellets so I'm not sure what else to do--and also how I can reverse what's happened to his shell, or if it'll go away on it's own after time.

I know, I'm a panic-prone turtle mommy.

What size was he when you got him and how big is he now? How long have you had him?

He was between 1" and 1.25" when I got him--I guestimated at the time--and he's 2.10" as of a couple weeks ago. I've had him since mid-to-late may, so almost two months. He's grown significantly larger in a very short period; he's nearly doubled in size.

Okay. It sounds like this is typical growth. When turtles are young, they sprout up much quicker than older turtles. Most turtles will reach 4'' within their first year. After that, their growth rate slows considerably. I'd say keep an eye on him for now and keep up the feeding schedule. There's nothing wrong with adding vegetables to your turtle's diet, just don't restrict the protein intake when you do it, you are feeding the proper amount of protein and you don't want to stunt his growth by reducing it.

As per the shell, I think this stacked appearance happens with most hatchlings due to their rate of growth. They will retain scutes for some time and they can build up quite a bit because they are growing so quickly, but usually after the first major shed their shells smooth out again. To encourage good shell health, make sure your turtle is getting calcium and has exposure to the proper UV rays. Your best bet is to take him outside and let him bask in the sun.

He's got both a heat and UVB lamp, but I could take him outside, too. I don't know about his calcium intake; I haven't been giving him a supplement but I could get him some cuttlebone today.

I was told before that this is normal growth, but I've never had a hatchling before, so all I know is that he's got some pyramiding-looking effects, and pyramiding = bad.

When the time comes, will he shed the old scutes off in solid chunks? Or will they sort of flake off little by little? Like I said, they're pretty thick, probably about a millimeter in height; they're visibly raised. Like I said, something is flaking off of him now but I can't tell if it's skin or shell.

color-m - I will not chastise you but give some advice from my turtle experiences. The things that are floating in your aquaium is propabley skin. The shed skin also. You can cut back on the food a little if you wish. I start feeding mine every other day when they reach 3 inches and they do fine. Many keepers feed their turtles too much and that contributes to pyramiding. A good diet with lots of calcium will be helpful with the carapace. Just stick to the rules of the turtle road and your turtle will be fine.

Can you post a picture? The seams do become part of the scute, so what you're seeing is not unusual - it's just happening quicker due to growth. So a larger area has to fill in, and the original scute is a bit raised.

Like I said, I don't have a camera nearly good enough to capture it. While the raise and the scute difference and all that are pronouncedly large for a turtle his size, he's still a very small turtle and in the end it's very small in the grand scheme of things.

General Care Discussion :: Reversing the effects of potential pyramiding?

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