Urgent Care :: Spartacus has a REALLY soft shell, recovering from ri

[steve]

Just to clarify, there are some medical creams that are used with turtle shells and are quite greasy. Retail products like VitaShell are not recommended.

[marisa]

Oil won't strengthen the shell. A good diet, plenty of calcium, basking under proper lighting and clean water (a good habitat) will help.

[kachua-love]

Thanks for the advice, there will be no oily stuff going near his shell for sure! His appetite sure has returned but only towards worms, pellets and fish food... No veggies! Any help on how to get him to eat those? I was thinking about trying some jello shots. Any thoughts?

[steve]

Those have worked well for a lot of people. Some also use a veggie clip, which holds them in place and aquatic plants.

[kachua-love]

Hi, so I made the shots. He loves them but only till they're a ll firm and frozen after that its just ignore. So I hand feed them to him. He seems to enjoy it. Like a game
I had another question:
After he's started eating and is recovering, his scutes have been shedding, which is cool but his skin's also shedding A LOT! It looks like clumps of white stuff hanging off him, when he's in the water. It is not noticable all the time like when he basks, which has also increased since his appetite returned. He used to shed normally before so I know the difference, this just looks like very heavy duty shedding ... He's fine otherwise, eating, swimming, begging and basking a lot. I change the water every few days.
I was wondering, is it due to him getting better? He didn't shed the whole time he was sick, no skin and no scutes. Is it a sign of good health or should I be worried? Thanks!

[marisa]

He needs to bask to help digest his food, so if he's eating more, he'll probably bask more.

What's the water temp? Excessively high water temps can enourage shedding, as can a high ammonia level in the water. If the temp is high though, since he's been ill, you might want to gradually lower it to more like 78F. He also could just be shedding because he's eating more (and therefore growing).

[kachua-love]

I have been gradually lowering water temperature for the past 2 weeks, right now its at 75-76F, ammonia levels are low too and I do clean out any food and waste the same day, I change 50% of the water every week, may be its the growing bit... I don't know. He's been bone skinny for a while and seems to be gaining now, I haven't weighed him recently, I'll do it in the morning. He was 40g when he was sick. I'll update with the weight...