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Turtle Shell Problems

This video discusses how to determine if a turtle shell is healthy or not and can help to identify some early issues with your turtles shell.

Some turtle health topics discussed are:

  • Pyramiding – caused by overfeeding or too much protein in their diet
  • Shell Rot – This is a fungal or bacterial condition caused by any of the following, poor diet, lighting, water temperature, water condition or anything else relevant to their habitat. Can also have white spots, it may show the flesh underneath.
  • Alternate signs of a turtle being healthy include Skin color – The one in the video has bright colors and a shiny shell which shows it is well taken care of. If your turtle has a grayish tint to it, or perhaps is head is too small for its body than this may be an indicator of rapid growth which is caused by poor diet.
  • If your pet turtle’s water conditions are kept clean then the should be no algae present on the turtles shell either.

More Turtle Info

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Emma

Thursday 7th of September 2023

Hi

I have a 6 month old red eared slider turtle and he has started gaining these white spots on his shell. Please advise what can be done.

Thanks Emma

Natalie Butz

Monday 28th of November 2022

Help. I think this turtle I inherited had shell rot. I have been treating it for over a month and a half and I feel like it’s only getting worse. Does it look worse before it gets better? I feel like more layers of her shell keep coming off and today I swear it’s down to the tissues. I’m nervous it’s going to hurt her lungs or go deeper and kill her. I don’t have a vet in my area. I need any help I can get

rohit babar

Sunday 15th of September 2019

plj help me i have one red ear turtle from 1year , he not eat propr any food like pallets and nonveg itoms . he have a white spot on shell .plj suggest some thing

Marj

Wednesday 24th of July 2019

Is there really nothing I can do about pyramiding of my red eared sliders shell. I just noticed it.

Nadia

Friday 22nd of June 2018

Hi,

We have a painted turtle and its shell in one of the edges is breaking, It look like the scales are getting "empty" and then that part of the shell falls down! Do you have any idea about what can be happening?