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Goodday

My one RES lately has been finding anything and everything to scratch his/her shell against. Roughtly 2.5" shell length, and yeah, he/she will be scraping/scratching the top of the shell against anything hard. Could he/she be trying to shed?

Any help is greatly appreciated,
Matt.steve

That's what some people believe is happening.

Mine do that as well. A couple of times they rearranged the filter intake!

Thanks, Glad to know its nothing serious!
-Matt.steve

My RES, who is the very same size as yours was doing the same thing a few weeks ago. His shell was shedding and all of the old scutes since peeled off. I have not seen him rubbing on anything in awhile so I believe his shell must get itchy while shedding.

My vet also suggested that I assist with peeling the scutes off as long as they peel easily. He said that sometimes debris can get stuck under retained scutes and cause a problem. I was a little apprehensive about doing it the first time but with a little common sense and a pair of tweezers I did just fine.

I dunno, from what I hear here you should just let nature take its course when it comes to shedding.

Don't peel the scutes off. With regular basking and good water quality they should come off on their own.

I agree that the advice I was given from our vet sounded odd but I figured that he knew more than I did. I would never consider trying to force them off but when I did help peel them, they came off easily and caused the turtle no harm. Hopefully, the next time he sheds they come off a bit quicker as this last time it was several weeks with little progress. Again, I do agree that peeling the scutes sounds strange.

Yeah, sometimes Vets are just good for diagnosing an illness and curing it. They don't always know how to take care of turtles.

Well, I wasnt gonna help him, figured they could do it themselves. Seems like its all fixed, hasnt been scratching for a bit now

-Matt.steve