Possible skin problem?
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Hi, I’ve just been given the care of three terrapins by friends who are away traveling. I don’t know if this is normal or not and I can’t ask my friends as they are currently on some remote island off Thailand. The two larger terrapins have some kind of white substance on their necks. It looks like dead skin that occasionally breaks off and floats to the surface. It doesn’t appear to be distressing them and they are quite active in their tank and eat away happily. Before they left my friend did tell me that one had been developing white spots because of a calcium deficiency but the water is now treated for this. The water is cleaned regularly. Can anyone tell me if this is normal or something I should get checked out?
Hi, can you clarify what the water is being treated for(calcium def?) ive never heard of this. do you offer(or has your friend) cuttlebone with the hard backing cut off? you find it in the bird section. do you have a uvb light setup so they can absorb the calcium properly? is the basking site at 90 degrees? can they all get completely out of the water to dry off and heat up if wanted? i think the skin problem on the neck is either fungus or excessive shedding which has nothing to do with calcium. is the shell hard? any spots on the shell? what is the water temps and diet like?
Hello Tara, Sounds like they are just shedding their skin to me. I would just keep an eye on it and as long as conditions don’t change and they continue to behave normally (active with healthy appetites), I seriously doubt you have anything to worry about. Hopefully, the owners will be back in town sometime soon and they will know for sure. Take care, Jimbo
Hi, thanks for the responses. The previous owners are in an island off Thailand and on their way to Australia (thanks to the recession here in Ireland) so unlikely that they’ll be back any time soon to be able to answer my questions. Plus they were new to the whole turtle ownership thing aswell so were still learning themselves. Hopefully it is just skin shedding, like Jimbo said. Meara (former owner) was told that white spots that were on one of the turtles before, were due to a lack of calcium and he was advised to get ananother heat source (we now have a red heat lamp and a uvb lamp) and also to add salts and calcium to the water. He was advised to use Supa Neutraliser http://peticious.com/supa-neutraliser-25g-12-units-p-16923.html This contains calcium sulphate (95%) and calcium carbonate (5%) and is added to the tank when the water is changed. When Baby Don had white spots Meara used Supa Tonic Salts in the water but since they have since cleared up I’m not sure if I should continue to use this. The cuttlebone is a source of calcium too? Should I also use that also or are the above products sufficient do you think? The basking site is warm enough. Yes they can get completely out of the water and heat up and dry off. It doesn’t appear to be fungus like, excess shedding would seem plausible, is this a problem I should be worried about? Their shells are hard and there does not appear to be any spots on them. Offhand I think the temperature is about 24 degrees C, which I think is about 75 Degrees F. There is a regulator on it and its possibly cooler at night, not 100% on that one. I feed them once daily with a complete turtle food which consists of food pellets, shrimp, krill etc. A few sites suggested that this isn’t enough so I’ve also occasionally added lettuce and am considering live food. I know the previous owners tried them with a slug but they were quite small at the time and it fought back so after taking a bite they left it alone…they’re a few months older now so could be braver! Thanks for all the help, I hadn’t realised there was so much to consider when I took over their care but they’re entertaining little guys (or gals, not sure) so I want to do what’s best for them. Tara
— In diamondbackterrapins@yahoogroups.com, “Tara ODonovan”
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