General Care Discussion :: White areas all around shell

Taking care of your turtle's overall health.

Post Posted: Thu Apr 20, 2017 3:39 pm   White areas all around shell

Hi everyone, I noticed today that my turtle's shell is getting white areas. Visually, they kinda look like scrapes of some sort, though I know that's not what they are. They seem to be mostly around the highest points of the scutes, and around the outer edge of the shell. I'm attaching a few pictures for a visual aid. I do have hard water - maybe the light spots are just calcium/mineral deposits? These spots are not soft - they are hard to the touch. The underside of her shell looks normal.

-She basks under a heat lamp and UVB bulb 2+ hours a day regularly
-Water temp = 75F
-Diet = Reptomin pellets, Mazuri pellets, Omega pellets (rotated each day, and only 2/3 of her head size each day - I plan to switch this to every other day very soon as she is almost a year old now), plus a leaf of red leaf lettuce or green leaf lettuce (depending on what my grocery store had in stock) in the evening.
-I just started giving her cuttlebone 3-4 weeks ago.

Any insight or haring of experiences, recommendations are greatly appreciated!
Attachments
IMG_20170420_123513.jpg
IMG_20170420_123543.jpg
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Last edited by mjneighb on Thu Apr 20, 2017 8:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post Posted: Thu Apr 20, 2017 3:46 pm   Re: White areas all around shell

Me again. I first noticed these spots right after she jumped off her basking platform. Now that she has been swimming around for 20 mins or so, the places have faded a great deal. Some light spots are still visible, but much less noticeable. Is it possible that this is just dryness?
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Post Posted: Thu Apr 20, 2017 6:16 pm   Re: White areas all around shell

Maybe you had her a year? to me looks older the color's that tail and that front left leg/claw. That just to me! What size was she when you got her?

Can you please take a photo when completely dry , will help. Calcium/mineral deposits or bacterial are hard to discern the difference. Steve will come in on this he's very good in that area !

From the looks of her shell you could give her a more balanced diet , more veggies and less protein.

So for now a photo completely dry and how about one of the front legs close up for the claws. Your she may be a he? Knowing will help down the road on your final setup if we can tell from the photo. May / could be still to young yet but that last photo of left claw ...?
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Post Posted: Thu Apr 20, 2017 7:50 pm   Re: White areas all around shell

Thanks for the feedback!
I got her(?) around 10 months ago, and at the time she was just a couple inches in diameter (about the size of a silver dollar), so I'm guessing she's around a year old, give or take.
I got her out and dried her off real good and snapped some more pictures. The spots aren't very noticeable when dry, but maybe someone will see something and can offer some recommendations.
I do think I'll go ahead and cut her back to 3 times a week on pellets. I was going to wait until June to do that, but she's getting a little bit of a ridge as you can see. Any other recommendations or insight are much appreciated!
Here are the pics of the dry shell.
Attachments
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IMG_20170420_151131.jpg
IMG_20170420_160440.jpg
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Post Posted: Thu Apr 20, 2017 8:03 pm   Re: White areas all around shell

... and here's a couple more to get a better look at the front claws as requested.
Attachments
IMG_20170420_185218.jpg
IMG_20170420_185341.jpg
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Post Posted: Thu Apr 20, 2017 9:27 pm   Re: White areas all around shell

Big for 10-12 months , overfeeding ? Was just angle of other photo's on those claws , still to young to be telling.
Let Steve look at photos , as I said he's very good with it. I really don't see anything major but has some minor areas. Nothing that can't be corrected. Doing this for years and still don't always get it right. Steve's the man !

Better nutrition , housing and maintenance are the best methods of prevention! Not that they are off but could always be fine tuned!
Nothing like a good shed to help with her shell.

Has she always only bask for that 2+ or just started? Did you just change her bulbs UVA/UVB? I would rethink her basking dock or did you change it up? Turtles can bask all day if they want to , helps in so many areas for health. I would try to entice her to bask more.
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Post Posted: Thu Apr 20, 2017 10:21 pm   Re: White areas all around shell

She's always been a pretty steady basker. I wish she would bask more, but she's very shy and jumps off the dock at the sight of any movement. No recent changes to the uvb bulb, though it's probably due to be replaced soon.
Her tank is in a spare bedroom, probably the lowest traffic off all our rooms. I'd love to move her to the living room but I'm afraid she'd never bask then! :)
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Post Posted: Thu Apr 20, 2017 10:28 pm   Re: White areas all around shell

I use stock tank's on the floor , my chair is 6" away in my front room and I always have my hand over the rim or in tank playing with Piggley. He loves it ! I'm been lucky the turtles I had always wanted more attention and I give it to them. I truly believe one can turn a shy turtle around in time.
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Post Posted: Fri Apr 21, 2017 6:29 am   Re: White areas all around shell

Lets do this until Steve comes in. You must live in the Midwest for that hard water , which causes a lot of mineral deposits , more cosmetic. Do you notice any stains in tank? Old timers like me would use rounded tablespoon of "aquarium salt" in tank for every 5 gallons to help. Now a days people use driftwood and peat moss to lower that high PH in hard water. But you will get tea stain water if the tannins not removed.
We also used white vinegar to gently rub on shell to remove any deposits from that hard water. White vinegar is a good all around cleaner.
Whats the timing on your water changes? More frequent water changes and top notch filtration helps in the bacterial area. Also if scoring from bacterial it's harmless due to it attacks dead material , take steps to remove decaying organic material to a bare minimum. That's where a good shed will help. Getting her to bask more can only help and must dry off completely. What's the temp on basking dock?
Do the areas feel rough or smooth , do they have a smell to it , see any holes / pitting , soft?

Bottom line having pristine water conditions with a little more maintenance will help greatly for the turtles health. RES's are very hardy but lets not test that theory. RES's can handle wider range of PH than others like Maps are more picky. Your tank water looks clear : does your filter do mechanical , biological and chemical filtering? If so never use tap water to clean media , use tank water or you will kill any good beneficial bacteria needed! Even a tank has good and bad bacteria as we do on humans.
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Post Posted: Fri Apr 21, 2017 9:02 am   Re: White areas all around shell

Yes, you guessed it correctly on the midwest. :) I do get a lot of white residue in the tank, all around the water level line and up above my filter spray bar (from the constant, slight splashing up on the glass above it). Periodically, I take a plastic razor blade, and with a little tank water to loosen it up, it scrapes off easily.
I was doing a 60% water change every week, but then I started traveling a lot with work a couple months ago, and my last 3 changes were done every other week. I will get back to weekly to see if that improves things.
I think my filtration is pretty good. I have a sunsun 404b (rated at 525 gph, I believe) and inside it, I use [from the bottom of the filter, upward] a course filter pad, medium pad, and fine filter pad for mechanical filtration, and then two trays of ceramic rings at the top for bio filtration. I do take care to only use tank water when rinsing the filter pads and rings to preserve the beneficial bacteria.
There is some room for water quality improvement. I will get back to doing a 60% water change each week and will try to reduce the hardness. Oddly (well, oddly to me anyway - maybe it's not really that odd), the pH levels are always around 7.5 - not high at all like I would expect for hard water. I use tetra strips and API drops for testing and they both read the same 7.5 pH. I don't have a hard water test with the API kit, but the tetra strip always shows a "hard" reading, and the visible mineral residue backs it up.
Thanks for the advise and for taking the time to provide it! Much appreciated!
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Post Posted: Fri Apr 21, 2017 9:39 am   Re: White areas all around shell

Personally I never had consistent readings on those strips , Me to I use API drop master kit. Water company's by federal law must offer water quality reports to there city. See what it says? Just for the hell of it I send a water sample to my local college and they test it for free , to see what I really have. That 7.5 for hard water seems low to me to? You are doing good just keep an eye on that shell so it doesn't spread.
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Post Posted: Fri Apr 21, 2017 12:44 pm   Re: White areas all around shell

Mineral deposits will make the whole shell duller, but it doesn't occur often. It mainly looks like "baby" scutes that never had a chance to shed and are lifting/breaking up now. The overfeeding would have contributed to this condition.
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Post Posted: Fri Apr 21, 2017 2:22 pm   Re: White areas all around shell

Thanks Steve. As mentioned above, I'm going to decrease the pellets and increase the veggies. Other than that, is there anything else I can do to help her overcome this? Or would you expect it to correct itself once the diet is adjusted? Thanks again!
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Post Posted: Fri Apr 21, 2017 3:52 pm   Re: White areas all around shell

A good balanced diet , a good maintenance schedule goes a long way for her to be happy and healthy !

How about a name ... a unisex name would be safe or wait until gets more mature to know for sure.
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Post Posted: Fri Apr 21, 2017 4:05 pm   Re: White areas all around shell

lol.. yeah my little girl named him/her "Marion". I suppose that could work either way. :)
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