General Care Discussion :: Albino RES help

[Squirt1996]

Hi I’m a brand new turtle owner and we’ve had our baby albino RES for
2 months now. He’s having trouble eating his food.. he only eats the baby turtle pellets and usually misses when he goes to
bite them. I’ve put him in a small bin to feed to see if that helps at all and he just swims
past the food. Not sure if there’s anything else I can try?

Then in the last few days we noticed
he has dark green stuff ( looks like algae) showing in the crevices of his shell. We tried using a brush to gently scrub it off
and it’s not coming off. Is this a common issue with albinos? We’re at a loss here.

[steve]

Albinos have trouble seeing. So anything that might help him see... a simple tank arrangement, less intense lighting. You might have to direct some of the food to him until he gets better at it. As for the algae, the gentle brushing is fine, but I would avoid handling a hatchling too much.