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I have had my two girls for almost three years this week (well at least the first one). Both were abused, so their ages are a mystery. I got Charlie from a woman who posted online looking for a turtle sitter for thanksgiving, although I knew nothing about turtles I volunteered since I didn’t trust the random other people that might have done bad things to the turtle. I assumed the woman knew how to care for her turtle, so I did just what she told me for a few days. Then I did my homework on RES and found the poor thing was being terribly treated. When I told the owner this she told me to just keep the turtle since it was too much work to care for it properly. After dealing with a bought of shell rot and other illnesses, I got the turtle, I named Charlie, a 20 long tank (I have upgraded a few more times since then) and soon got her a friend that I "rescued" from a local petco. This second turtle was in worse shape than the first, but soon she was doing much better. The girls were always roughly the same size but the last few months Charlie has ballooned. I just measured them and she is entire inch larger than Angel (the other turtle). When they are basking on top of each other, Charlie is twice the size of Angel. Since they are both rescues I have no idea how old they are, but does this growth seem normal? Is Charlie normal and Angel not growing properly? Or could they just be different ages with different growth rates? I check them weekly for any problems given their rough beginnings and nothing is wrong with either on the outside.

What size are they? If Charlie is younger, she would grow faster than the older turtle. Have you been monitoring how much each one is eating? If Charlie is hogging food, that could explain her sudden growth spurt.

As of today Angel is 5 inches and Charlie is six. The real size difference comes from the fact that Charlie’s shell is 5 inches WIDE. Charlie has definitely been hungrier than usual lately, but she is not hogging all the food since there are fish in the tank for a few days, sometimes even more than a few days after I put them in. I think Angel has plenty of time to get her fill. I also use pellets and greens, but those are harder to judge who is eating how much since the greens are eaten over time and the pellets tend to be gobbled (albeit mostly by Charlie, but she has always preferred them over Angel. Angel is a fresh fish “person”). I free feed my turtles that way they don’t gorge themselves when they get fed and overeat. I tend to add fish and greens twice a week and pellets when they beg for them. Sometimes they get that frozen turtle algae/seaweed stuff.
I have not changed anything about their feeding except for the size of the fish. The little ones didn’t seem to be filling them anymore so I started buying medium ones. And as I said there are still fish in the tank when I refill (granted only 1 or 2).

That sounds pretty odd. One turtle usually out-competes another, so you might have to look into it. How do their shells look? Any deformities? Any symptoms or change in behavior?