General Care Discussion :: Normal Shell Hardness in a Hatchling?

[steve]

If the shell has scar tissue, then I would guess I suffered some sort of injury or bite very early on. Sounds like you have nothing to worry about.

@Kansas - do you think it's still a problem if used very sparingly?

[Kansasslider]

I take it your asking about raw freshwater fish? I'm not sure what could happen to turtles because they do eat fish in the wild. My vet said my cats shouldn't and I know we should never eat raw freshwater fish. I feed my turtles frozen Pollack. Its saltwater fish and its cheap. Maybe I'm just overcautious.

[unclejoe]

I am not sure what scar tissue looks like on a turtle, if I can I will try to get a close up of it.. But it looks more like a well worn rock.. It has colors in it and strips but really smooth.. kind of like what rocks look like when they have been worn down for thousands of years by water.. I suspect how young he is that he wouldn't have this really smooth look to it so quickly if he got bit after hatching.. but I could be wrong.. if he got bit like that I would imagine he would have lost part of if not all of his front right leg. We saw that a few times in our wild turtles,, Appendages missing. It was amazing how they healed up in such filthy conditions.

[unclejoe]

Here are a couple pics of his deformed shell I just took today. I hope you can see how really smooth and worn it looks.

[steve]

I have not tried pollack but if I recall correctly, some use canned salmon with bones for their turtles. Not sure if they are OK with cats since some are freshwater but not raw either.

Joe - you could be right and it is a bit a of mystery. Painteds do grow slower, but who knows what happened. I would keep an eye on it to make sure it does not change since it might be more susceptible to infection.

[unclejoe]

so the consenses is that scar so to speak will always be there? When we saw him we just thought it gave him character, he won't win any shows but no biggie.. We still think he is beautiful..

[unclejoe]

I take it your asking about raw freshwater fish? I'm not sure what could happen to turtles because they do eat fish in the wild. My vet said my cats shouldn't and I know we should never eat raw freshwater fish. I feed my turtles frozen Pollack. Its saltwater fish and its cheap. Maybe I'm just overcautious.

I understand your caution, but on the other hand I would like to provide him with what is natural to him in the wild. As you can see we spend a lot of time with wild turtles and they never appeared sick, but I was also thinking, they had the freedom to do what they chose, so if for example they got parasites from something they ate, I am sure instinct may have drawn them to whatever they needed to control the parasites. Our captive turtles don't have that option, so I am giving your advice some thought..

I will have to remember to offer him Salmon and Tuna when I open a can. Never even thought about that.

[unclejoe]

I know wild turtles would steal duck eggs off nests, has anyone got any thoughts on raw eggs with shell? I know he is too small right now for a whole chicken egg with shell. But I imagine the shell would be great for calcium and other vitamins..

[steve]

The missing piece won't grow back, at least not when there is a chunk missing.

As with eggs, I do remember people using crushed eggshells as a sournce of calcium. Not sure about whole/raw. I would probably avoid that.

[Kansasslider]

I also wouldn't feed raw egg. I think the fear is Salmonella.