I think my turtle's growing?
Posted:
Wed Mar 01, 2006 4:05 amby lazixixi
My RES is about 6 months old and about 1 and 1/4 in. I feed him about 4 pellets a day and a lil bit of veggies. I noticed the the top of his shell/seamline is turning whittish and appears to be apart of his shell. I heard that it means he's growing, but I see no signs of shedding. Is something wrong?
Posted:
Wed Mar 01, 2006 2:40 pmby RESCHIU
I think turtle shows growth in shell first before skin shedding, I noticed the same on my turtle too, I saw about 2 ring growth on his shell before he started shedding his skin real bad, so doon't worry
look at their plastron area, that's probably the part you have to look out for.
Posted:
Wed Mar 01, 2006 8:14 pmby marisa
Are you talking about shedding scutes or shedding skin?
Posted:
Fri Mar 03, 2006 9:26 pmby lazixixi
... I have know idea, I just heard that turtles are suppose to shed when they are growing... -_- so cofuzzled.
Posted:
Sat Mar 04, 2006 2:25 pmby marisa
Scute shedding is associated with growth, but the top layer of scutes will not necessarily be shed every time there is growth, especially if the turtle is a hatchling/younger. The seams (lines in between the scutes) of my eastern painted yearlings will periodically turn whitish, indicating that the shell is growing, but as the growth slows, it will darken and become part of the scute, and the shell will be larger. At some point, however, the top layer of the scute will be shed.
Turtles also will shed some skin when they grow, and normally this is seen as translucent wisps of skin hanging off their extremitites/neck/tail while in the water. Heavy shedding (big clumps of skin, shedding more like a snake, for example), for an extended period of time is not normal, however, and could indicate a number of things--too fast a growth, temps (both water and basking) that are too high, a too high ammonia level in the water, even a fungus, to name a few.