Not a DBT but maybe you can help?
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Heya. I’ve been a member here for maybe 2 years, had a baby DBT who died and since haven’t had another turtle. But i’m in college now, and there is a display tank with a red eared slider and eastern painted turtle. the painted turtle looks like it is having some skin problems, it looks flaky and like some peices are hanging off, on the neck and leg areas. The turtles are in about a 30 gallon tank, have a basking area w/ a heat lamp but i’m not sure how hot the basking area gets, etc. They aren’t in my care, but if something is wrong i’d like to be able to say something to someone. If you want me to try to get pictures i can try to. Thanks in advance for the help, Tricia
It sounds to me, like this Eastern is simply shedding it’s skin. Though skin problems can arise when Eastern’s are kept with the very messy Red Ears.. Does the peeling skin look translucent white, or is it colorful?
painteds often slough off skin it looks white, thin, partly translucent and flaky ( and pretty yucky) you’ll see it around the neck alot its normal if its on the shell or near the ends of the feet then it may be indicative of a problem if it seems hard and solid like a mold, or soft a cheesy then it may be fungus (veternary intervention is always advisable) but reducing (or increasing) the ph may be of some help dropping the pH to near 6.4 or raising it to near 7.8 may do well to kill any fungal growth (i’d reccomend lowering rather than raising if possible) as will making sure the turtle can dry out completely sometimes removing it for an hour a day to a dry box will help as dry air kills many fungi, but painteds stress easily so this may cause more trouble painteds, though a temoperate species, seem to do better in captivity with rather high temps on the basking spots (near 97 F seems to be ideal).i would recommend this much warmth for many other northern species but it seems to keep the problems down woth painteds (especially c picta picta and c picta dorsalis) keep the water and air as you would for a slider but keep a warmer basking spot. since the animals are beimg kept together maybe more than one basking spot should be used and the temps more closely monitored i currently have a large tank with some sliders and painteds; there are two basking areas one is poweree by a 250 watt bulb and one by a 150 wattt they are almost equidistant from their respective basking spots one spot (a large piece of bark varies from about 90 to about 100) the other varies from about 86 to 90 ther painteds almost always use the warmer one and the slider the other. good luck probably you have nothing to worry about but its nice that you want to help somebody else’s animals -rob do you know what subspecies the painted is (easterns and southerns seem more prone to fungus than westerns and midlands) “Tricia M
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