Reptile & Amphibian Forums

All the baby snappers I have caught (up to 1 1/2 inch shell) have had somewhat soft shells. I have also seen some improperly kept that had very soft shells-one 3-4 incher in a nature center had a shell that folded easier than a softshell-the shell bent depending on how the turtle was sitting in the tank.
I've never bothered to keep one long enough for it to grow, and have caught the big ones up to about 50 pounds(one was weighed at 52), just wondering how old, on average, snappers have to get before their shell is actually hard?

I used to keep common snappers, and I noticed that their carapace would harden considerably at about 4". The plastron can stay "softer" for quite a while.

It sounds like that nature center needs to throw some cuttlebone in with their turtle.

Thanks-that explains things a lot-I've never kept them bigger than about 2 inches(usually just little hatchlings for a very short while, had one not much bigger than a 20 oz.bottle cap.