I just went back and looked at the older post with pics of your box turtle and honestly it doesn't look that bad. It doesn't have pyrimiding or horrible looking scutes. The color seems odd greenish, to me it looks like there may have been algae growing on the shell or algae in the water that then baked on the top of the back. Not sure where your advisors termed "bleached" comes from unless the idea is that your turtle is basking too close to your UV light, because if I read it correctly you are using a florescent tube light so maybe it is too close and the turtle is basking very close, attempting to get warmth. Maybe a heat source, cleaner kept water source and a better more varied diet is all you need to get this turtle in perfect shape. And ignore the "bashing", your doing the best you can and we are ALL learning here. There is a product called vita shell that you could scrub onto the back of your turtle with toothbrush, which may help if the shell seems dry and peeling, but to be honest looking at your turtle I personally would take some rich black soil (and I mean pitch black greasy dirt) like the kind you would find in good farming or garden soil, not potting soil with fertilizer though, anyway take the black dirt and rubb it all over the shell, let in stay on for a few days and the rinse and I bet that shell will look amazingly better, just be sure to keep water source cleaned out if the turtle drags dirt into it water dish or whatever you use. Rich greasy black dirt is mother natures finest turtle shell conditioner.
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Jeff Benfer

gartersnakemorph.com

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