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Finally, one of my babies is starting to shed their scutes! I just thought my turtles we abnormal or something, lol. I picke Dana up today and noticed something on the bottom of her shell felt weird, so I turned her over and sure enough one of the scutes was coming off. So I looked her over and noticed that there were some tiny air bubbles under some of the scutes. I feel like a proud parent now, lol. Now, if I can just get a hold of Mercedes to check her out. Not sure about the sex tho. Just thought I would share my joy!

Oh, and would any of this explain how much she's been basking?
And, is there anything specific I should do when I see the scutes in the water?

Congrats! I've had mine over a year and they still don't show any signs of being ready to shed.

I think the basking does have something to do with it. My eastern painteds have been shedding like crazy as well, and are leaving scutes on their corkbark and at the bottom of the tank.

If you see scutes in the water, take them out.

Our turtle sheds flakes of skin and scutes but has never shed a whole scute.

My RES is more likely to shed parts of scutes (although last summer with basking in the sun, they came off in whole pieces). But the eastern painteds are a different story. I've kept little bags with each of their shed scutes this year. Kind of like saving baby teeth.

I compost shed scutes from my RES, or sometimes just bury them in the garden. Protein breaks down into nitrogen. They are like slow-release fertilizer.

I don't compost, and I like comparing the sizes the new scutes with the ones that shed.

My RES used to shed whole scutes, when he was younger, but nowadays he tends to shed them in pieces