General Care Discussion :: update on Benji

[benjitheturtle]

Hey all! It's been a while, and I'd love to provide a little update on Benji. First of all, we took 'her' to the vet and found out 'she' is actually a male! I had my suspicions, as while Benji is a young turtle still, he recently started going through turtle puberty. his claws got so long, and his tail so long and fat just over the course of a week and a half! I suspect the sudden growth spurt has to do with increased nutrition and overall better husbandry. He's currently in the process of shedding some retained and unhealthy scutes, but he has pretty much almost fully recovered from his shell rot. Pretty much just trying to make sure it doesnt make a come back, and to get all those retained scutes off. He's adjusted well to his new home one issue i've been having is getting him to eat his greens, but he's still young so I'm not to pressed, I just keep offering him stuff. He only really likes to eat my frogbit and nothing else in terms of greens. I actually had to move all my floating pants (except for the hornwort) into my snail tank because he would just not stop being mischievous and knocking down the airline tubing!! so yeah, hes been doing good, loving his new tank!!

I just have a few general questions:

best way to introduce more variety into a picky turtle's diet?
how long does it usually take for a turtle to fully shed their scutes? and is there anything i can do to help the process along?

[benjitheturtle]

also, heres some pictures of the little guy

[steve]

Glad to hear things are going well! A lot of what I see is fungus, not shell rot. Shell fungus has a nasty ability to make it difficult to shed scutes. It'll also comeback to infect the new scutes underneath. IMO, make sure everything there is to minimize it's growth (usually a lack of basking) and treat with a vet-approved antifungal like silver sulfadiazine cream.

Basking really does wonders for the shell. Make sure he's getting calcium and vitamin d3 (should be from UVB) too. You might need to adjust the basking area temperatures to encourage more basking. Since he's still growing, do not over feed as that causes growth spurts and doesn't allow much time for shedding.

As for getting him to eat more variety... if he is otherwise healthy, you can try a little tough love and only offer those veggies. You can make your own veggie treat for him too, and slowly increase the plant content. I would also suggest a veggie clip that holds the leaves in place. They seem to more likely to nibble or sample plants that way.

[benjitheturtle]

Glad to hear things are going well! A lot of what I see is fungus, not shell rot. Shell fungus has a nasty ability to make it difficult to shed scutes. It'll also comeback to infect the new scutes underneath. IMO, make sure everything there is to minimize it's growth (usually a lack of basking) and treat with a vet-approved antifungal like silver sulfadiazine cream.

Basking really does wonders for the shell. Make sure he's getting calcium and vitamin d3 (should be from UVB) too. You might need to adjust the basking area temperatures to encourage more basking. Since he's still growing, do not over feed as that causes growth spurts and doesn't allow much time for shedding.

As for getting him to eat more variety... if he is otherwise healthy, you can try a little tough love and only offer those veggies. You can make your own veggie treat for him too, and slowly increase the plant content. I would also suggest a veggie clip that holds the leaves in place. They seem to more likely to nibble or sample plants that way.

i just tested the temp under his basking light. its 83 degrees right now. his night time lamp is slightly more intense, ill test that one too. im def gonna raise the water level in his tank today to hopefully get it up to 85-86 or even warmer (its a 150 watt bulb and the lamp fixture i have says it only takes up to that amount of wattage). he basks, especially at night, in fact he prefers sleeping under the basking light, but i bet he will bask even more if i get the turtle dock closer to the heat lamp.

im so bad at the tough love lol he's just gonna have to learn to love the veggies. so far the only thing he will for sure go for is frogbit, he decimated a few shipment of frogbit within like 3 days. i've been trying to grow it in a separate tank.

could i make something similar to snail jello, which contains gelatin or agar-agar to hold all the ingredients together. i make snello for my snails and then freeze dry it, but wanna make sure its okay for them to eat any kind of gelatin or agar product.

[steve]

I never heard of "snello", pretty funny name. I bet it's similar to the turtle jell-o shot that some have made here.

[benjitheturtle]

I never heard of "snello", pretty funny name. I bet it's similar to the turtle jell-o shot that some have made here.

i saw a recipe for that on here, its pretty much snello just with some different choice ingredients. ill definately make a batch for benji.

also i retested the heating after increasing the water level, and the day time lamp is reading at 86.5 degrees and the night time lamp at 88 degrees. it also raised the water temp from 76.5 to 77.5 f. he should be much more comfortable now

[steve]

What are you using to measure temps? I highly recommend an infrared temp gun for on spot water and basking measurements.

[benjitheturtle]

im using the Etekcity Infrared Thermometer 1080, is that a decent one?

[steve]

Should be good! I think you're all set.