Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I work at a petstore partime, just to get out of the house. We are currently going through a turtle shell rot problem with two RES. I brought one home for better treatment and the second is looking better.. The turtles came in with little white patches and at first we thought they were just going to shed. When they started to stink and develop pits, i decided to research what it could be, I knew they weren't just "shedding" anymore!
I'm trying to get my manager to speak with the supplier about it. Another issue that came up is that, I don't feel that they are packaged right when they are sent to the store. They are all packaged together in one box. This packaging "technique" I feel leads to potential shell damage, but i'm not sure as to what a safe alternative would be. Maybe packaging them in seperate burlap sacks?? Anyone know?

The turtles you recieved do not develop those types of serious problems with just packing. If they are packed in a bag with no paper and the such, they may get scratches and nicks....this with led to unsanitary conditions can lead to shell rot.
I am not saying your store caused this but its one way.
Usually red ears shipped to stores are about 3-6 inches long. These come from louisiana and trexas usually where they are shipped in cardboard boxes piled on top of each other so that there is pressure on shells, scrathing occurs, and craters develop from others bieng thrown on top of each other. Before this though most 3-6" inch red ears are trucked from where they are caught usually staying in a truck or pen full of others with pilings, etc.... by the time they reach the dealer that sold them to you they are already opened up for infection, etc...
Once this happens, most dealers put them in cattle troughs which are made of metal/aluminum. They then get the bottom of their shells torn up because of the metals, etc....
plus they are usually overcrowded and are alwasy hitting each other, etc, thus causing the imperfections of the shll. With so many turtle in such a confined space they get alot of feces and debris on their shells where all the previous wounds occured thus leading to shell rot.
Among other things.
Mike
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"Quality isn't Quality without customer service so I guess I sell quality"

Thanks for the replies. I was just thinking that if we could prevent un-needed scratches and shell damage from occuring in the first place, that we could somehow help prevent bacteria and fungus problems from happening. Management has me on cashier duty these days, so getting people motivated over in the livestock dept. is harder to do. Took us 3+ hours to completely scrub and clean the turtle habitat the other day. No one likes to do that much work ,but me I guess -aren

I received a turtle from a dealer on this site that packed a turtle in a cloth bag and then sealed that cloth bag inside a soft PLASTIC envelope. There was no air holes in this plastic envelope for the turtle to breath. There was also no cardboard or styrofoam to protect the turtle. I was very shocked that someone who deals in turtles would think this was humane. I guess the morale of this story is to give shipping instructions or at least check with the dealer on how they will package the animals prior to shipping. Times have changed and turtles no longer need to be shipped in substandard manners.
Best wishes,
Mike N.