Urgent Care :: Is something wrong with the shell?

[Indyfan1234]

Okay I've had my 3 red ears for a little over a year now. These are my first turtles. I think my turtles shells are growing weird especially one in particular. He looks alot different then the other two.

[devilduck]

Looks like rapid growth from overfeeding. You probably want to cut back on the quantity you are feeding.
Are you only feeding pellets? You may want to try varying their diet with more fresh veggies.

[Indyfan1234]

Yea I feed him the tetra fauna sticks. And feeder fish once in a while. Oh and these little turtle ball things which I assume are pellets from zoo med. that same turtle it looks like on his right side from his perspective right it looks like his shell is a little sunk in. You can see it in the pics where there are "stretch marks" towards the front on his right side.

[steve]

Did you get them when they were hatchlings? How big are they now?

[swiltz]

They look pretty fine to me.. just a lil unshed scutes...try feeding them more vitamin E rich foods? ( blueberries, hikari wheatgerm pellets)- as supplements

[Indyfan1234]

Yes I got them when they were babies. They are now a little over a year old. The biggest is about almost the size of my hand. I know that's not a good description. I always feed them the tetra fauna sticks. They ate dried shrimp the first month I had them but found out that was bad so I fed them the sticks everyday.

[steve]

They've basically been growing too fast from too much protein in their diet. It would be a good idea to re-evaluate their diet.

[JimmyLo]

RES Pyramiding, or at least the early signs of it - cut back on any protein-based food (pellets, pet store-bought food)- make that about 30-40% of his diet AT MOST, the rest should be vegetable based (green-leaf lettuce (not iceberg), asparagus, carrots, etc. Check out the Diet section for other suggestions.

[Indyfan1234]

I tried feeding them romain lettuce they nibble at it but don't really go crazy on it. Only a few bites and sometimes spit it out. I have them a calcium block that looks like cuttlebone but it's actually made turtle specific. They eat that more but still beg for the pellets.

[steve]

You're going to have to go with a tough love approach. I'd skip any of those white turtle blocks... turtle specific cuttlebone is just a marketing thing, most people use regular cuttlebone (packaged for birds).

[Indyfan1234]

The turtle cuddle bone is the same shape as regular. It was actually cheaper at my petsmart then the bird one. It says more calcium too then the bird one. But anyway what's the tough love approach?

[ataraxiamb]

The tough love approach is not giving in to their begging and feeding them more pellets, but leaving the lettuce in there as their main food source. They will come around and eat it if there's not much else to eat.

You might try some aquatic plants. I feed my turtle Anarchis and Hornwort. While he's picky about some vegetables, he dug right into those the minute I first put them in the tank.

Also, it's fairly common for the turtle to spit back out some of the lettuce. They just tear off a bigger bite than they're able to chew at once, and spit the excess back out to eat later.

[Indyfan1234]

Okay so two of them are finally eating the lettuce. The big one hasn't though. He seems very very stubborn.