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My RES shell is soft in the pleural and marginal areas...he is a hatchling is this normal??

I know hatchlings will have a softer shell in the pleural region (not sure about marginal). It should give a little (be pliable) but not be super soft if moved/touch. Not sure how to explain it exactly but hope this helps.

Softer shell in hatchlings is normal.

pheww....got scared a second there... thanks

hey! ok, so i changed back leo's tank to more water when i looked at the pictures of other people's tanks and now he's back to never getting on land. the water temp is 78 and the basking temp is 92. i've tried to widen the temp gap in hopes of drawing him out to bask even a little. i put all his food on land so he at least has to get up to get that. i have one basking area made out of a stick-looking dock thing from petsmart and one made of piled rocks in the other corner. i've seen him get up on both so i know he can... i have the uva/uvb light about 18 inches away. his shell doesn't seem abnormally soft but there are tiny white pinpricks on his shell. he just doesn't bask and i'm scared he's going to get sick i'm about to leave for 3 weeks, and leave him in the care of a friend. they'll take care of him, but if he got very sick i don't think they would know what to do (but neither do i for that matter). i've even constructed a "turtle run" made out of FedEx boxes taped together and lined with printer paper that i change out after he runs around in it till his shell dries! he doesn't run away from me when i come over so i don't think he's still shy about basking around me. is there another problem i'm missing? soo... any advice would be marvelous! Thanks very much, Natalie

turtles will not eat if their food is on land...they only eat it if it is in the water...also the uva/uvb light is way to far...it should be not further than 6inches or else they will not benefitt from its rays...hope that helps

not totally true =) before i knew what i was doing with turtles and since my food always got sucked up in the filter before they ate it....i used to put the food on the dock in a little hole right next to the water. They would pick it up in their mouths and walk over to the edge of the water. Even when i put it on the opposite side of the dock, they would still walk it over. It took them a long time to eat b/c of all the walking tho. And i KNOW they love it better in the water. But mine still ate it.

I think what Crushh meant is that they need the water to swallow their food. Mine will also take food from the basking dock and dip their heads into the water to eat.

I have actually seen a hatchling eat a pellet without using water. He was fed with tongs, and just took the pellet and swallowed it. Not normal, though. And possibly dangerous.

my hatchling eat their reptomin baby pellets whole all the time...in the beginning they did not do this..marisa u said it is dangerous...what should i do????

She is referring to the fact that it is dangerous if they eat out of water. Since they do not produce saliva, it would be very difficult to swallow - especially a dry pellet.

so it is ok if my turts eat the pellet whole in the water? Right?

yeah, he'll grab the pellet and run back to the water with it. how do you keep the temp from getting too hot with the bulb that close?? i'm already paranoid about the dock getting too hot on the surface since it is dark-ish colored.
i took some pictures today and as soon as my computer is fixed i'll post them also, this is the most coolest thing ever: he's gotten to where if i put my hand in the tank he'll swim up to it and climb in. same on land, too! hehe. its probably not good because you're not supposed to handle them so much, but i don't try this more than like once a day. i'm just excited that he doesn't despise me anymore. and he lets me pat his head... don't know why but... sure!

thats really cool that your turtle does that mine do the same thing...to prevent it from getting too hot use a lower voltage.

ok. that would probably be better anyways, then i could go off and leave it without worrying so much about it being a fire hazard thanks!