General Care Discussion :: Scutes

[Listen97]

Well if finally started driving me a little crazy that one of my two turtles had done a major shed and was now smooth and round while her sister was still jagged and had some noticeable scutes that wanted to shed. I started popping them off last week, first the top row of 4 then got the back two early this week and finally the middle and front yesterday. My only problem now is I have no idea about the sides, and bottom, they seem to be more locked in place. They look solid close to the shell and lighter/transparent further out.

[steve]

Those are usually the toughest one to come off and might not even come off during this shed.

[mikee]

You should not "pop off" their scutes. They sould be left alone to come off naturally. If you do it too soon you can cause problems with a raw spot on the carapace. Good lighting with uvb and calcium will help the process.

[Listen97]

Those are usually the toughest one to come off and might not even come off during this shed.

some around her head on the bottom are getting pretty long, just hope they don't affect her in any way. guess i'll do the toothbrush method on the shell a little bit to encourage them.

thanks for the info mikee, but they have the proper setup, light, get cuttle etc. and when I say pop it was more of a light tug and they came off with no effort on my part. Just knew they should have started to come off apx. the same as her sisters had. This is their first major shed at 4 years old.

[Ranger The Red Ear Slider]

My RES still has not shed any of his scutes. But taking him outside in the sun once a day for around a hour i think has been helping him a little bit.