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So my roomates friend moved and now we have his turtle.
It looks like a res but doesnt have the RE's
The previous owner obviously didnt care for the turtle very well.... dirty water sorry lamp no heater etc...
he does however have a decent floating ramp bask spot which he now loves since i put a nice hot halogen lamp over it.


hes about 5 inches
water temp is now 78
bask spot around 90

there is a filter
the turtle has lots of energy and eats
the tank is too small (maybe 20 gallons)

his shell has been peeling since he got here a week ago.
and both the top and bottom look pretty bad
ive read over the care section and know he needs some more UV light and a heater

here are some pics
i want to adopt the guy for myself and if i do id like to get him a much nicer home
but is there anything i can do to help with his shell?
Will it get better on its own?

Looks like my River Cooter but the bottom of the shell is different ...

and its shell looks reallly dirty, you should get a wet toothbrush, and brush off his shell in the sink, will make it look SO much nicer.

hmm river cooter... sounds cool!


ok ill give it a brush and post some more pics

well the cooter does not like getting scrubbed
i got some of the peeling shell off but not all
perhaps ill scrub again in a few days.is all that black stuff on the bottom shell rot?

shell rot probably would be a lighter color dontcha think? like white-ish right?

if the black on the bottom doesn't feel soft or has a smell then it shouldn't be shell rot.

it probably might be a sign of ageing and its how it was born.

thats a map tuetle

i mean turtle

blackforces get you wrote:shell rot probably would be a lighter color dontcha think? like white-ish right?

if the black on the bottom doesn't feel soft or has a smell then it shouldn't be shell rot.

it probably might be a sign of ageing and its how it was born.

thats good to know... its not soft or smelly.
i was comparing to all the pristine undercarriages of your RESs and all that darkness on mine made me worry a bit.

it should be part of the shell color. i wouldn't worry much about it but if your really concerned keep an eye at its shell!

yeah the top does sort of look like a map turtle...

Do you have a clear shot of his plastron (bottom shell)?

He's going to shed soon, which would do a lot of good. You might also want to clean him up a little and do a thorough inspection.

Its a False Map Turtle to be exact ^_^

it's a map turtle.

hmm false map/map wikipedia time

as for plastron pics.. i think the second one is ok
its so hard to hold him upside down and shoot at the same time.

i did give him a very good scrub yesterday with a toothbrush

its clear his top is shedding and im going to give it another scrub in a couple days
as for thorough inspection i have no idea what id be looking for.