Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Does anyone have suggestions to improve a painted's color? I have a CB hatchling SPT and his color just hasn't been great since I got him a month ago. His stripe is dull and his underbelly kinda cloudy. Even the striping on his front legs isn't clear like I would like. I am feeding meal worms and Reptomin. He's completely healthy, just not as colorful as I would like.

Southern Painted's are the least colorful of the bunch. If you wanted color you should have gone with a Western. Either way, food cant really make a dramatic difference in color. Just give him everything he needs to thrive and he will grow to be the best his genes have to offer.

You can try feeding him other things like rosies, crickets, Anacharis (aquatic plant), romaine lettuce.... And instead of feeding just one brand name pellet, I like to mix it up. I buy several different brands and offer a small portion of each. Brands I have used are Reptomin, Zoo-med, Mazuri (my favorite), and Kaytee.

-Chris
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Currently in the US Navy so I have sold off my collection. But over the years I have had dozens of turtles, fish, geckos, and other lizards. Cant wait to get back in the hobby once im out though!

I dunno.. my western painted kind of started to fade a few years ago & then I read that lack of vitamin A can cause fading. I put him on a liquid reptile vitamin once a week & he really started to color up. He's not one who's interested enough in veggies to get him eating alot of veggies high in A.
Then of course I couldn't find that vitamin anymore & so he started to fade again.
A year or so ago I put him on Jurrassi brand aquatic turtle pellets. He still gets a lot of live food but when he gets pellets he gets that brand.
I did it because I liked the idea that it has no soy which a lot of people now say interferes with calcium absorption. It also doesn't have any dye in it.
His color brightened up again with that brand.
You may just need to try that pellet or find other foods that are naturally higher in vitamin A. I wouldn't just give vitamin A because it can build up to be toxic but giving it naturally with foods that are high in it is different.
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PHRatz

I haven't heard of Vitamin A helping before; I have heard of Vitamin C. But I'll give that food a try. I think he has the potential to get better color. I don't think it's just a gene thing because his shell was splotchy from the time I got him and even though it still is, it has cleared up quite a bit. Thanks for the help, guys.