The cute little red ear slider turtle hatchling chases the ReptoMin all over!! Awesome!

The ReptoMin shown in the video is the ReptoMin Select-A-Food. It comes with regular ReptoMin sticks, dried shrimp, and dried krill. My own red ear slider turtles loved eating the ReptoMin, especially the shrimp and krill. It’s actually the first turtle food that I bought that ran out!

Here’s the official product description of the ReptoMin Select-A-Food”

Three foods in one–contains ReptoMin Sticks and real natural shrimp and krill–freeze dried treats your pet will love. Nutritious variety for your aquatic turtle, newt, frog, or amphibian pet. Unique multi-section canister. Nutritious variety for your aquatic turtle, newt, frog, or amphibian pet.Unique multi-section canister.Three foods in one–contains ReptoMin Sticks and real natural shrimp and krill–freeze dried treats your pet will love.

In case you’re interested, ReptoMin Select-A-Treat is available at Amazon.com, Big Al’s Online now sells Reptile Supplies, and 1000s of Aquarium and Pet Supplies up to 60% off retail. That Pet Place.com

You can select more than one kind of turtle.

Have a pet turtle that doesn’t really fit the groups above? Share them in the comments!

His shell looks almost like new, since most of his scutes have fallen off already. When the scutes fall off, they reveal the newer, fresher shell layers underneath. The colors and patterns on his shell looks brighter and fuller, almost like he went through a time machine and got younger. By simply comparing the appearance of shell scutes to each other, you can tell which ones have recently been shed and which ones are going to go soon – basically it’s comparing the dull shell scutes vs the bright.

Here are some photos of the current state of of his shell: The parts encircled in red are shell scutes that my pet turtle still has to shed.

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If you look carefully at some turtle pictures of his neck, you can see the scarring from when Cinderella, my other pet red ear slider turtle bit him.

19% from a Chinatown type tourist/souvenir store
17% were found in the wild (road, pond, etc)
17% came from a small, local pet store
17% from another source not listed
9% from a large national pet store (Petco, Petland, etc)
9% were rescued from a friend
7% from a breeder online
2% from a reptile show
4% don’t have pet turtles turtle

It’s both sad and not surprising to see that most pet turtles came from a Chinatown type tourist/souvenir store (my pet red ear slider turtles came from that kind of store in Philadelphia). It’s sad because it means that many of these pet turtles are purchased while the owners are (most likely) away on vacation and are captivated only by how cute and small the little hatchling turtles are and don’t have the proper information about caring for them or how big they get. The information vacationers then receive from shopkeepers are also often inaccurate.

Also surprising is the large percent (17%) of owners that obtained their pet turtles from another source not listed. I thought most of the pet turtle sources were represented in the survey. So where did all those pet turtles come from? Let me know where you got your pet turtles from – please share them in the comments

Do you disagree with the survey results? Want to put your vote in? Click here to view the poll and enter your vote of Where you got your pet turtle/s.

Oh yeah. Shell shedding is completely normal and natural for pet turtles. It’s a sign of good health. It means they are eating properly and have the proper turtle habitat in terms of having a completely dry basking area (in addition to a totally wet swimming area).

My pet turtles have been shedding their shells

The reason for that is that my turtles, my male pet turtle in particular – Rex, has been shedding a lot of his shell lately.

Both my pet turtles have been shedding their shells for months now. Usually I find small bits and pieces of shell when I do some spot cleaning of the turtle tank with my water vacuum. I find them mixed in with everything I vacuum up, including pet turtle poop, uneaten food, cuttle bone “crumbs”, and shed skin. I always thought they were shedding really thin layers of shell that would come off in really small pieces. Of course, the pieces I would find weren’t always the same size. Some were bigger, most were really small.

Then when doing a water change a month ago, I learned the truth. It was a weird water change but I learned a lot. I also watched my pet turtles a lot that day… Before I even started, I found a newly shed piece of my pet turtle shell in the water. A whole scute! Much larger than any piece of shell I’ve found since. During the water removal and replacement process, I saw about three whole scutes in the water – fresh from falling off my pet turtles’ shells.

Pet turtles eat anything

I found a fourth scute when I saw Rex eating something. I hadn’t given the turtles any food, so I though he was eating some turtle poop – but upon closer inspection he was actually trying to swallow a whole turtle scute. My pet turtle was trying to eat his shed shell! He had almost swallowed the whole piece before I managed to pull it off his mouth. That’s when I realized that my pet turtles have been shedding whole pieces of shell, entire scutes all this time. They see the pieces after they fall off, and red ear sliders being what they are, they ate them. The small bits and pieces I would find when doing maintenance were turtle shell fragments that were already processed – as in my pet turtles had already eaten and pooped them!!

After the water change, Rex was swimming around when I saw a scute hanging off his back. It was almost completely out, so I pulled it off him. Throughout the rest of the day and the day after, I kept finding whole pieces of shed shells in Rex’s side of the pet turtle tank. In the next few weeks, I vacuumed more frequently and found whole scutes in the vacuum bag. Some pieces were clearly Rex’s and some I’m not sure which pet turtle of mine they came from. I only found a single piece of whole scute that I found in Cinderella’s (my female red ear slider turtle) side of the turtle aquarium. Just one.

And so, here they are. Some photos of the pet turtle shells that were shed. I’ve been collecting them over a month and arranged them in their proper arrangement. I have almost all the scutes for Rex’s carapace – they are the first several pictures. I only found one piece from his plastron, it is the second set of photos. The last three photos are the only whole piece I found from Cinderella’s carapace. Enjoy:

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red ear slider turtles shed scute

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pet turtles shed shell

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pet turtle shell

pet turtles shell

How about you? Have you been finding your pet turtles shed shells? Have you been collecting them or just throwing them away?

Turtle shells

Turtle shells are made of keratin, which is the same material fingernails are made of. Turtle shells grow in separate sections (or pieces), which are called scutes. Scutes grow in layers and build up outwards, with the oldest scute layers on the outside.

Turtle shell pyramiding

During periods of fast growth, such as when pet turtles are subjected to overfeeding by their owners, the shell scutes layer up quicker and more rapidly than it would naturally. This is called ‹em›pyramiding‹/em›, which is unhealthy and unnatural. It should be noted that some turtle species, such as some land tortoises, naturally have pyramided looking shells. In contrast, most aquatic turtles, such as red ear slider turtles, have smoother shells. It is to the smooth shelled turtle species in which pyramiding is not a normal nor healthy appearance..

Turtle shell shedding

In the process of growing new scute layers, turtles will shed their shells in time. This is a natural occurrence and not a sign of sickness or disease. Providing pet turtles the proper diet and environment, such as the proper humidity, basking areas, and temperatures will help turtles shed their shells and keep a healthy appearance.

Some turtles shed their shells in smaller pieces, some turtles shed their shells in larger pieces. You can usually tell when a turtle scute is about to be shed – the scutes look like they have air or space underneath them. Sometimes, when you press on them, water from underneath the scute will squeeze out. But that doesn’t mean a scute is about to fall off – it can still take more time before the scute will completely separate from a turtle’s shell.

Found this nice video about the state of the world’s Kemp’s Ridley sea turtles.

This is the information from the video information:

Thirty years ago, a film entitled The Heartbreak Turtle began telling the grim details about the Kemps Ridley Sea Turtle. It described how each year 2,000 eggs were given by the people of Mexico to the people of the United States each year to incubate. Then tiny hatchlings were raised by the government for almost a year or head started to give them a greater chance to survive when released back into the Gulf of Mexico.

Conservation policies have changed but the work goes on to save the Kemps ridley sea turtles from extinction. Progress is being made but public education is the key to this sea turtles recovery. Nests are increasing on the Texas coast making it important that tourists and residents are vigilant and watch for tracks, nesters and hatchlings during the spring nesting season.

A new documentary is needed. The Sea Turtle Restoration Project (STRP) with funding from The Meadows Foundation have completed a number of excellent interviews with scientists and educators who continue working for the preservation of the Kemps ridleys.

Kemp Ridleys are an endangered sea turtle species. They have an SCL (straight carapace length) of a maximum of two and a half feet. Read more information here, at the NOAA Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtle page.

If you aren’t a long time reader here’s a picture of the injury, which you can read about it here: My pet turtle’s eye injury, My pet turtle’s eye injury part 2, and My pet turtle’s eye injury part 3 – recovery photos.

The total veterinary bill amounted to $163. Here’s what the charges were for:

• Metacam 2ml – Exotics
• Gentocin (only) Opht Soln
• Injacom Inj – Excotic (101gm+)
• Exotic Exam – Initial vs

The first three were pet pharmaceuticals (drugs). They were general made for pet drugs or a reptile formula – none of them were formulated specially for pet turtles. Here’s what each item was for:

Metacam. It’s an NSAID (non steroidal anti inflammatory) drug that controls pain and inflammation. We had to use a syringe to inject it into poor Rex’s mouth. A lot of other websites state that it has a palatable (tasty) taste and that dogs will easily accept it. Rex might have a dog-like name, but he’s a pet red ear slider turtle and it wasn’t easy giving it to him – he didn’t like it at all. After the first dose, he didn’t dare open his mouth again and it’s impossible to ’slip’ something it into a shut turtle mouth. We would put some of it on his turtle food, but he wouldn’t even go for that. It was hard, but being patient was the only solution. One time he even urinated on me when I was giving him (or trying to give him) some metacam. Aquatic turtle pee – I didn’t think I would ever come into direct with that outside of it being diluted and mixed in with the turtle tank water…

Gentocin (only) Opht Soln – or rather Gentocin Ophthalmic Solution. Gentocin is usually a spray-on drug that is used on pet dogs and cats for the treatment of lesions accompanied by swelling and/or itching. The type of Gentocin we got was in eye-drop form (not a spray) and it was the ophthalmic solution, which is made especially for use in eyes for treating/preventing infections, scratches, allergies, ulcers and similar. Each drop would immediately spill out from his eyes – turtle eyes seem so small compared to the size of the drops. Gentocin was easy to give to Rex and wasn’t difficult in any way.

Injacom Inj or Injacom Injection. Injacom is an injection (duh!) that was done by the vet. It contains Vitamin A, D3, and E. Apparently, the one dose the vet gave our pet turtle was enough as we weren’t given any to administer at home.

The fourth item (Exotic Exam – Initial vs) was the veterinary fee and was the most exam item at $91 (total bill was $163). Going to the vet wasn’t exactly cheap, but it was more affordable than I expected. And the peace of mind that my pet turtle was receiving the care and medicine he needed to recover is priceless. So yeah, take your pet turtle to the vet if s/he gets hurt!!

Anyway, Rex is a fully recovered and happy pet turtle and he looks like nothing ever happened to him!

The silliness of it all…

Look at what I found at Target:

And here’s another one I found, this one online, the Dog Turtle Costume:

Here are parts of the pet Dog Turtle Costume description that are just too funny to read:

• Turn your dog into the fastest turtle on the block!
• Features 3-D eyes, and a polyfill-stuffed shell, tail and back legs.
• a great way to leverage the popular turtle trend!
• realistic multi-dimensional costume features an olive green polyfill-stuffed shell with green felt appliques.

This is just silly….If they wanted a dog that looked like a turtle, they could’ve just bought a pet turtle that gets big, like a sulcata, and take it out for walks, just like Tank the Tortoise!!

It’s still a shock that Cinderella, my female red ear slider turtle, bit Rex, my male RES turtle…

Anyway, here are photos of Rex’s wound / bite mark from Cinderella’s bite. There’s a sore red spot on his throat area and some scarring. Otherwise, it looks like his wound is healing ok. The wound he has looks like it was cause by the bottom tip of Cinderella’s mouth

Poor Rexie turtle….

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pet turtle bite mark

red ear slider turtle bite mark

pet red ear slider turtle bite mark

pet red ear slider turtle bite mark

red ear slider turtle bite mark

red ear slider turtle bite mark

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pet turtle bite mark