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Thanks to you all for helping me out with this. Mr. Tuck's eye problem seems to have cleared up today. He's no longer holding his eyes shut. It may be my imagination but it seems his eye color has changed?

Anyway, for a bit of bad news tho, he was up on his basking spot yesterday and climbed right over the edge and fell 5 feet down to the hard tile floor. I have it blocked off now he can't go up on the ramp. Not until I figure out a way to cover the top with mesh.

He's fine tho. I checked his shell and there are no cracks or anything. He's very lively today. I got him a couple rosie red and a couple bigger feeder fish. He ate the 2 big ones but can't catch the small ones yet. He's very active today. Those fish are making him do quite a work out!.

I read about cuttle bone for turtles for the first time today. Had never heard of this for turtles before altho I know about it for birds (I used to breed birds) but of course it makes perfect sense.

Can someone answer 2 questions for me?
will a turtle shed its shell thru adulthood?
what's the life spam of res?

thx!

1. yes, shell shedding becomes less frequent as the turtle's growth slows, but they do continue to shed.

2. over 20 years in captivity, i think up to 40 years.

Life span: Long enough that you should possibly set up a trust fund and will your turtle to someone!

Sounds like your turtle is adjusting real well. I'm sorry to hear about that fall. Turtles are surprisingly athletic - if you leave them the slightest opportunity to escape - they will. Glad to hear he doesn't seem to be hurt.

And on the life span of a RES - yes, 40 years seems to be about the upper limit. In my family, since my husband and I are both already pretty old and our turtle is young, our turtle will be a family heirloom. We made provision for his care in our wills.

TheComputerGremlin wrote:Life span: Long enough that you should possibly set up a trust fund and will your turtle to someone!

Egads... well I'm not that old. lol! but if they can live to 40 , then maybe including him into a will would be necessary. :/ Strange to think that our turtle could be around when my girls have kids of their own!

So anyway, regarding this basking spot. I brought home some wire screening and will figure out how to affix it to the top. But how long should it take for him to find where his new basking spot is? He's been submerged in that water since we brought him home on saturday.