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Hello,
Over the past week and a half I have noticed shedding on the neck, legs and tail of my turtle. It all looks normal per this board so I wasn't alarmed. Then yesterday I noticed a bump or growth looking thing on his plastron closer to the tail. It's hard and fleshy colored, small(size of a pin head), and is at the meeting of 4 of the plastron tiles. Today when I came home from work I noticed that it was gone and replaced by a hole of the same size.

My question is do turtles shed in that area too? Does anyone have any pictures of what this would look like?

I can't provide any pictures since the only camera I have is on my phone and won't show that much detail.


How big is your turtle? 2½ inches
How long have you had it? 1 month

What is the water temperature? 73° - 75°F
Are you using a water heater? with my next paycheck I'll have one
How much water is in there? about 15 gallons
Are you using a water conditioner? yes, the blue stuff (I forget the name)
Are you using any filtration? yes, an aquaclear200

What is the basking temperature? about 86°F
Is there a basking light? yes
Is there a basking platform that is easy to climb on? yes
What kind is it or what is it made out of? rock
Is there a UVB light? yes

What have you been trying to feed it? bloodworms, shrimp, turtle sticks
When was the last time your turtle ate? tonight a 5pm

How big is the tank/pond/enclosure? 30 gallons
Is the tank near a window? yes
Is the tank in a room with a lot of activity? not really

Have you read the Basic Care section? yes
Have you searched the forums for similar situations? some

Is there any other unusual activity/symptoms? no

i would still try to get some pics wit the phone.
They may be just enough image for someone to recognize something and answer your question.

That sounds very strange. Definitely post a pic if you can, but if not, I would make an appt. with a vet just to check it out. The plastron should not have holes in it.

This is his belly. The hole isn't that big but is already closing up.



Also...does this shell look normal to anybody?
It has brownish patches. It was like that when I got him, I didn't know any better!




I apologize about the pictures. I hope you get the idea.

I would just keep an eye on it and make sure your turtle has the right water temps, clean water, UVB, calcium and a basking area.

How big/old is your turtle? If you recently got him, you didn't notice a small bump in that area before? Since your turtle looks like a really small hatchling, I'm wondering if that wasn't the remanent of the egg sac that came off, leaving the small hole. Keep the water clean, and keep an eye on the hole to make sure it's closing up.

Turtle do shed the scutes on the plastron, but yours is too young to be doing so (unless the scutes were somehow injured there).