General Care Discussion :: Shell Curling?

[Solie]

I've attached a few pictures from both of my RES.
Both turts seem to have the same issue.
They both are 2.5 inches long and are kept in the same 55 gal aquarium for the time being. They have been overfeed in the past but that has changed.
They now are getting around 5 pellets each of reptomin a day. I also have started giving them 1 leaf of romaine once a week which they usually devour in a day. The water temp is around 76. I'm not sure what the basking area temp is. I have both a basking bulb and a UVB bulb over the basking area.
Do their shells look normal and if not what do I need to change/do to correct the problem?


Myrtle






Geico

[BullDog]

Looks pretty normal. They do have slight pyramiding.
With the proper diet, you will be able to minimize the pyramiding, and since they are still small, as they grow the pyramiding my disappear.

On the pellets, would 5 pellets fit inside their head if it were hollow (not including neck)? If so, then you're on the right track.

You can feed them veggies more than once a week. Check out the feeding sections of the main site and stickies in the feeding forum for a list of good and not so good veggies for them.

Also, give them some cuttlebone for calcium. Just make sure to pick off the hard backing.

[jenaero]

Mine had the same problem at around the same size. My case was actually quite a bit worse. The person i was living with was feeding them and not telling me so they were being fed at least double what they should have.

I corrected their diet, feeding pellets every other day rather than daily and kept a closer eye on the amount they were eating. At that point they had never had a shed. After about 2 years of the correct diet, one started to shed. And 2 years after that they both now look like there was never a problem. The pyramiding completely corrected itself on one turtle, and the other still has a few scutes to shed but is otherwise normal.

[Solie]

So the clear portions of shell are normal or is that do to overfeeding?

[jenaero]

The transparent areas of the shell are overgrowth.

[marisa]

The serated marginal scutes on the carapace are scutes that should (or should have) shed. The slight curve upward on the rim of the carapace is from too fast a growth.

The translucent edges of the scutes on the plastron are, again, the result of the top layer of scutes being pushed outward as the scutes underneath grow.