General Care Discussion :: Help with my Apples.

[phantom_shadow1989]

Ok. I found out that my turtle, Apples, is about a year old and 4 inches long. He was shedding scutes very well and losing all of his retained scutes from his old home. He has now stopped. There are some scutes that need to be shed yet and he isn't shedding them, they are not even lose. You can clearly see the old scutes next to the new ones. He basks several times a day for several hours. He even drys off at night some times. He has had his food cut down to once a day a combination of pellets and veggies. Once or twice a month he gets live fish and a couple times a week a pinch of treats. Should I be worried? Is there anything that I can do to help him shed easier?

[steve]

Can you post a picture of the retained scutes. As long as the scutes aren't hiding or causing an infection, it shouldn't be ok.

[phantom_shadow1989]

I am going to post pictures when I can. I will be a day or two. Sorry for the delay.

[phantom_shadow1989]

Sorry this took so long, life got crazy. I had Apples checked his shell is fine, he is just a slow at shedding.
Here is something that I was wondering about and I think this is a good thing. I have been testing his water to see if it needs to be changed or not. I have not changed it in about two weeks and everything is test below what it says is harmful to him. I checked the website and it says the same thing on the box that the levels are safe for him. I am guessing that means that I have a good filtration system and am good at keeping other things under control for him. Correct me if I am wrong.

[steve]

A good filtration will reduce the amount of water changes, but you should still do some of it. You can only test for certain parameters, there are probably other things that are not monitored and would benefit from a partial change.

[phantom_shadow1989]

That is what I needed to know. I add fresh water every two to four days. I will make sure to keep that up so he has good water. I also need to cut back his food some he is getting a little chubby. He is four inches so how often should I feed him? Would feeding him every other day be ok at that size.

[steve]

Adding water and taking some out or just topping it off? You can feed veggies every day and "head amount" of pellets every other day. Or even every 3 days. I do give my RES pellets everyday, but in small amounts.

[phantom_shadow1989]

I was just topping it off, but now I am changing old water with fresh water.
I noticed that on cooler days he is less active. Is that normal?

[Kansasslider]

I was just topping it off, but now I am changing old water with fresh water.
I noticed that on cooler days he is less active. Is that normal?

Well that's a good question. As summer fades away my turtles bask less and are just not that active. Heck their eating habits tend to change also. They eat a lot less. I guess that even though we keep our turtles indoors they are still connected through the outdoors in some way and that's how their bodies respond if it's cold outside they don't eat a lot they don't bask at all. I've tried to figure this out myself they just don't seem normal. I don't hibernate my turtles. But its summer time and your turts should be doing what it normally does. Cooler weather does not effect any of my 4 turtles. Until winter comes.

[phantom_shadow1989]

By cooler I meant several days in a row that were in the 50s. He acts normal the rest of the time.

[steve]

It's usually OK and shouldn't be a health issue when they are kept indoors and the temperatures are consistent.