Turtle help...shell question?

Question

I recently adopted a new turtle .. and i have a question about his shell.. it has spots on it they kind of look like cigarette burns but not.. any ideas on what that may be or any good sites i can go to find out more information... i don't know much about the previous owner .. just took the little guy in so he wouldn't be homeless he is also a eastern painted turtle... (i am a 1st time turtle owner)

thank you for any help

Answer 1

http://www.redearslider.com/

Great Site for New time turtle owners. It may be shedding, shell rot, shell disease.. Im not an expert on Painted Turtles as i am RES

Answer 2

He's probably shedding. If it is soft, then it could be shell rot or something similar. If it is soft then contact a reptile veterinarian.

Answer 3

My daughter volunteers at a local reptile rescue center and we adopted a Greek Tortoise a few years ago that had been abused.  He also had shell problems.  The owner of the center told us to try a product called Vita-Shell.  It's a cream that you apply to the shell a few times a day.  It did a world of good!!  His shell got more color to it and some of the spots (he had been hit with a hard object) where chips had been taken out of his shell disappeared.  

Answer 4

i don't now

Answer 5

Here's a link to give you a bit of general info. about Eastern Painted Turtles (EPT):

http://www.austinsturtlepage.com/Care/ca...

General care for the EPT is about the same as for RESs (Red Ear Slider).  So, the links I post below will apply even though it says a different turtle species.

These are illnesses/ailments.  Peek out the photos and see if you can better tell what's going on with his shell.  Some of the sites will give home cure suggestions, and others will tell you if he needs a vet:

http://www.austinsturtlepage.com/Care/me...

http://www.geocities.com/margareth100.ge...

http://www.austinsturtlepage.com/Care/me...

http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?...

The most important factors for these guys are heat, diet, and clean water.  I'll post some general info. here which you can check out when you find time, once you see what's wrong with his shell and deal with with it.

Besides commercial pellets, a list of meat products would be:

Earthworms, rosy minnows or guppies (goldfish are high in fat and shouldn't be fed often), cooked chicken, gut loaded crickets, Phoenix-Silk-Butter worms, frozen Tubiflex or blood worms, krill, shrimp, snails...

A list of safe to eat water plants would be:

Anacharis, Duckweed, Water Lettuce, Water Hyacinth...

A list of vegetables would be:

curly kale, collard-turnip-mustard greens, dandelion flowers & leaves, romaine/red leaf lettuce; watercress; parsley; Swiss chard; shredded carrots; shredded squash (yellow; pumpkin; butternut, acorn; etc.), shredded sweet potato...  Just about any good veggie you can think of.  

But please do NOT use:

White potato.  Iceberg lettuce - it has no nutritional value.  Avoid too much spinach & broccoli as they bind calcium.  Brussel sprouts & cabbage should not be used.  And never Avocado as it is toxic/poisonous to most animals.

Fruits such as:

Cantaloupe, apple, pear, peach, orange, grapes, mango, grapefruit, etc. may be offered a few times a week as a treat item.

A big tank (the bigger the better).  An adult female can get 9" long and require a 90 gal. tank or pond.  If you start small, you'll have to keep upgrading as the turtle grows.

Rules of thumb are: 1.) 10 gal. of water per inch of turtle shell length (if it's a 5" turtle it needs a 50 gal. tank), and 2.) a filter which can clean 3X the actual tank size (so if the tank is a 50 gal. the filter should be for a 150 gal.).  Turtles are very messy creatures.

-A turtle dock for basking.

-Heat light for basking.

-UVB light for basking.

-Submersible heater to control water temp.

-Good digital probe thermometer or Infrared temperature gun to measure the water and  basking temps.

-Sea salt (use 1 level tbsp. per 10 gal. to control algae and bacteria)

-Please don't use gravel (it's an impaction risk)

-Water dechlorinator

-Bird cuttle bone (put in the water) to provide needed calcium

Habitat:

http://www.redearslider.com/index_habita...

Feeding:

(younger turtles eat more meat than plant/veggies, so the percentage of which depends on age.)

http://reslider.free.fr/backup/feeding.h...

http://www.austinsturtlepage.com/Care/ca...

Behavior:

http://redearslider.com/unusual_behavior...

Kudos for the rescue.  I hope this has been helpful.