Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Ok, here's the situation....

My husband has a pet red eared slider that he inherited from his ex-gf when the relationship ended. He continued to care for it in the manner she did, as per her instructions. the problem is, they were very bad instructions, grrrr.

The turtle was purchased as a baby, and had deformed back feet, possibly due to injury, they look like something bit them off, he has LEGS, but no feet, they're just stumps.

When I came on the scene, the turtle's shell was ~4.5 inches. My husband says he was only around 2inches when purchased, so amazingly, he DID grow. He was being kept in a 10 gallon aquarium with a small rock, some gravel, and just a couple inches of water in it, just enough to cover his shell. No filter, no light. His shell was shedding quite badly, but isn't soft. Supposedly he is male, that's what my husband said the pet store told his ex when she bought it. He was the one that moved it to the 10gallon tank, because he thought the um, BOWL she had it in wasn't big enough.

I switched him to the largest tank I could afford, which is only a 20L, and gave him a nice smooth rocky area to bask. Due to severe financial constraints, I can't buy lighting, filtration or a bigger tank, etc. right now, probably not for another 6 months or so - - seriously, $20 may as well be $2000 to us right now, but fortunately, that situation is a temporary one. I moved the tank to our brightest window (southeast facing) to get sun, and since the weather has been warm, he gets outside for a couple hours several times a week too.

I also supplemented his diet (previously those turtle sticks) with romaine lettuce, broccoli and celery greens. He gets greens every day, and sticks about 3-4 times a week. I try to give him earthworms about once a week if I can dig them up, but that's only possible during the warm months - I live in Ontario Canada.

Due to the lack of filtration, I change the water every 3rd day or as needed. I try to NOT feed him in the tank due to the lack of a filter, but many times it's inevitable as he takes his time eating the greens - he likes to graze on them. The one thing that manages to stay well is the temperature, it's around 78-80 degrees F.

The problem is, his shell is still shedding, it didn't for awhile, but it's started again. His shell was already deformed to begin with. I also don't know how deep to keep his water - right now it's about 6-7 inches. I'm scared to make it much deeper because of his back legs (not to mention all the water changes I have to do), I'm worried about his ability to swim. He also doesn't seem to bask very much, I've caught him on the rocks only ONCE in the past year, but I suppose that doesn't mean he isn't doing it when I'm not around. He's NEVER hibernated either.

How worried should I be about this shedding? It's hard to tell if it's normal or not, because he never looked normal in the first place. Am I giving him enough water to swim considering his disability? Too much? He seems ok otherwise: he certainly has an appetite, I don't see any white spots or sores, he's not sluggish, stool seems normal. When a little money frees up, should a filter or light be the first priority? He gets outside now, but winter is coming, and I can keep up on water changes if need be.

As far as I'm concerned, he's lucky to be alive, but I'd like to make him as healthy as I can and care for him as best I can until I can afford to upgrade his surroundings. Am I doing enough? We will be able to give him a better set up come late winter/early spring.

I had both a box turtle and a red eared slider when I was young, living down in florida, but the slider was in a pond and the box turtle was kept outside too. I'd probably still have them if they hadn't both been stolen, lol. We rent a townhouse and they won't let me put in a little pond/enclosure for him, but we are planning to move sometime in late 2004, and a pond is a priority on our list, so eventually he WILL be able to have an ideal place.

I feel really bad for the little guy. Am I doing enough?

Take Care
MadCarlotta

Your doing fine

Do you know why it's shedding? It's growing more! So that's definatley good if you want your little guy to become bigger. When it grows more naturally the shell sheds to become larger. I do feel bad that your turtle's feet aren't there but I feel happy that your doing a great job of keeping him healthy. Perhaps there was a birth defect (very common in RES) or maybe a larger RES bit his foot which would be horrible, but either way I'm pretty sure your RES has adopted to it and can swim easily.

They are built for swimming and their feet is just to propel them faster. I'm sure your RES can still float really easily and can swim easy to. Don't be afraid to lift the water level higher but if it's a 20 gallon tank it's probably as high as you should put it. Also make sure your basking spot is easy for him to get up to because if he doesn't have feet to propel himself up to the ledge it creates a problem.

Just one thing you should invest in is perhaps a underwater submerissble heater. If it's a good temperature now in the water then it's ok but that's probably because its summer. At night who knows how cold it might get... and when the winter time comes, don't let him hibernate, but be sure the temp is 70-75F. If its too cold then he becomes sick quicker and that's not good!

So good job, keep it up

Er just to clarify some stuff from my previous reply...

Do you mean he's shedding his shell or his skin?

If it's his shell then that's fine.. that means hes growing and stuff.

If it's his skin then it's not as fine but nothing to be alarmed with. Probably caused by stress but he'll get used to it eventually.

Actually, right now, he's shedding both....not too much skin though, a bit around his legs/tail area, barely noticeable unless you're looking for it (which I was). When I first "came on the scene" in my husband's life, his skin was shedding BAD, but I didn't see any sores, and it got better once I started doing the water changes. I'm a fish person, not too much experience in all things herp, but as a fish person, I know that water quality is the first thing you have to fix =).

I'm going to fill the tank up higher after I post this and watch him carefully to see if he has any problems. I find it odd that he doesn't seem to bask. In his other set up, he didn't really have to, grrr, so maybe he forgot how, lol. I know he can get up on these rocks, because I did see him up there once. If I fill the tank higher, I'm going to have to rig up a different basking area because I don't want to pile up those rocks, he's already shown me he can move them around, and I have this awful vision of him toppling the pile and either crushing him or cracking the tank.

His shell is in awful shape though, like I said, it was already deformed from his inadequate living conditions. There's no flesh showing though, it's just nubby and not a nice uniform shape, the edges are kind of like an old record that got too warm, but his shell IS very hard, no soft spots or anything.

Thank you for your response!

You should be proud. You have liekly saved an otherised doomed turtle. but getting any sort of basking light should be a priority when you can do it.
I'd also either add some calcium pills to the water or calcium powder if you can get some. This will help his bone/shell growth.

Thank you bloom, I hope he'll be okay. Like I said, he doesn't SEEM sick, but the shedding and the not quite ideal tank setup has me a bit concerned, hence my post.

I'm an avid fishkeeper, but I moved to Canada, and until I go through immigration, I can't move my belongings up here (or work, eep!). Right now, they're still in storage in NYC. I have a TON of gear down there waiting: tanks, lighting, filters etc. Not sure if any of the lighting I have would cut it for a turtle tho.....does metal halide have the spectrum they need, or would I only suceed in baking the poor thing? I also have high pressure sodium and mercury vapor lighting, but all my lighting was geared towards freshwater planted tanks and some reef setups I had. I have a couple pendants and if they would suffice for the time being, I could maybe have a friend down there ship them up.....or sell one of them and use the $$ for gear for this guy, lol.

I thought about the calcium issue....I'm used to dealing with very soft water, and back in NYC I'd have to supplement where need be. Up here however, the water is liquid rock. I don't have any of my test kits up here so I don't know what the calcium level is, but I'm constantly chipping rocks out of the sink and the faucet, off of plates that were left in the sink for more than a couple days, the toilet, etc. I assumed because of this that there was probably plenty of calcium in the water already.

I can probably get a water analysis from the city though.....is there a "magic number" of how much calcium there should be in the water for a turtle? Can there be too much? When I first met him, he had deposits on his shell from the waterline, since he was only in a couple inches of water, and I get a lovely ring around the tank that I'm constantly scraping off too, lol.

Take Care