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New to the site...have concerns about our two babies, Jake and Elwood, even though we recently discovered that they are in fact both female...they're still our Blues Brothers.

Even though we are new to the site, we have referenced it since day one for advice on habitat and such....thanks

They both recently developed a pink coloring on their plastron. We did attempt to switch their food from tetramin to wardley, however they did not really care for the switch. They are very active and have no other pink color on any other part of their bodies. We were recently away for the weekend and came home to a broken heater and a temp of 68-70. We have since replaced the heater and the temp is back to normal.

Here are our answers to the questions...

How big is your turtle? -Jake = 3" Elwood = 2.5"
How long have you had it? -almost 5 months

What is the water temperature? - around 80
Are you using a water heater? -yes
How much water is in there? -6-7 gallons
Are you using a water conditioner? -just chlorine treatment
Are you using any filtration? -yes submersible filter

What is the basking temperature? -?
Is there a basking light? -yes
Is there a basking platform that is easy to climb on? -yes
What kind is it or what is it made out of? -floating dock from petsmart
Is there a UVB light? -yes

What have you been trying to feed it? -tetramin sticks
When was the last time your turtle ate? -this morning

How big is the tank/pond/enclosure? -10 gallon
Is the tank near a window? -no
Is the tank in a room with a lot of activity? -no

Have you read the Basic Care section? -yes
Have you searched the forums for similar situations? -yes

Is there any other unusual activity/symptoms? -no

We are planning on getting a larger enclosure for them. We are well aware that their habitat is much too small.

Below are the pics. The pink color in the pictures is actually just a little darker than the color really is.

Elwood





Jake





Here is a pic of their setup...for now

this is weird, this is like the third person thats having the same problem..including me.

the pink on my turtles plastron turned out to be the shrimp i was feeding him. its fading a little now.

and whats weird as well, is that all the peoples turtles that are experienceing the same pink plastron problem share the same symptom i guess you can call it?

"very active"
"eating"
etc..

i doubt its something like septicemia because turtles get pretty lethargic and refuse food..

by the way 80 degrees is too high, try 78 degrees.

xsavingsaturdayx wrote:i doubt its something like septicemia because turtles get pretty lethargic and refuse food..

by the way 80 degrees is too high, try 78 degrees.

i know this.....in my above post i mentioned that their water temp had dropped below what is healthy for them so we decide to bump it up a lil to boost their immune system...

i mean i don't know if they need to go to the vet or not...my fiance and i are living 80 miles from our home vet. We are both away at school right now and the nearest herp vet is almost 40 miles away. Do you think we should take them to the vet???

I think you should. Call ahead and make an appointment. Better safe than sorry.

My res both have orange plastrons because of what I feed, but I'd say pink is not normal.

Both turtles have it? If it were me, I'd have them seen as well, especially the second one. Assuming they're healthy, something dietary is about the only thing that comes to mind. How fast have they been growing? And in the 4th pic, is there anything wrong with the 4th vertebral scute, or is that whitish area just part of the pic?

Is it something in the water? LOL. How weird there have been so many with this problem recently. I would say it's either Dietary or maybe are they scraping their plastrons or something?

the white part in the pic is just reflection, that part is fine on her.

I wonder what type of basking area the other turtles that are experiencing the same symptoms have. We have a zoo med floating dock from petsmart, they frequently run off the side quickly into the water. The second turtle is on the dock more often possibly causing more redness. I really truly wonder if the dock has something to do with it.

Over the past year I've seen several of these situations, however it was always with hatchlings. I don't rush to say that it is septicemia, but it should be checked out.

If it were abrasive, it could cause some redness (but not in the seam like in your turtles), but I thought these docks weren't supposed to be rough...

The docks aren't rough but they do have some color. Is it possible some color is rubbing off on the turtles?

It's off topic but the second turtle has a very strange shell! It looks like two shells merged together, and although we think it's cool and looks rather unique I was wondering if something specific caused this or if it's a health problem or your turtle is just cooler than mine lol I have never seen anything like it! Though I must say if it's a health problem the turtle sure seems VERY healthy looking, I must say it looks like you take very good care of your turtles!

yeah i was wondering about the very unique pattern on the shell

is that a bad thing?

yeah...we noticed that her shell was different as well....i've seen a few other res with that irregular shell pattern...