Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Okay, nothig alarming, but we all have to start somewhere, right? Yesterday I got two baby turtles, a pastel RES and a Florida Redbelly. I feel as though everything is going well, but I found a bit of info about the pastel that I havent seen before and it disturbed me a bit. Is it true that the color comes from high incubation temps and often results in a high mortality rate as a result?
Second, I got the red belly cause I know they will get to a decent size and the whole purpose of this is because we want decent size turtles for a pond in a couple of years. However, I cnat find ANYTHING on them!! Are they a slider or a cooter? And will he be cool to hang out with the RES while they are little guys? Any thing else will be great. I am open to suggestions.

Red bellies are cooters, and very social turtles. They do well with other turtles as long as a large basking area is provided, because red-bellies are aggressive baskers and will dominate anything to get a few precious rays of sun. The red-belly should grow fairly quicklyand reach sizes of 7-9 inches for males and 10-14 for females. They are a basking turtle from a warm climate, so when kept outside they must be in a warm and sunny location. The specifics of how pastel RES are produced are relatively unknown, but it is rumoured that some are produced with abnormally high incubation temperatures, which means they often have serious health problems and often extra scutes. Most pastels are females.

What are extra scutes versus normal scutes? I know dumb question but I can't find any pics. She is eating well both green lettuce and feeder guppies. I put them out for about 30 minutes a day to get normal sun.. (the F.R-B has a little bit of a squishy shell, but she is a baby still so maybe it is a bit normal?) I have pellets for them but they won't look at them(they kinda look like betta fish food). So they are happy, I hope. Thanks for letting me pick your brain.. -Angela

Extra Sscutes are those that do not appear normally on a turtle or tortoise. They are formed when incubation conditions are not correct, such as when the eggs are too hot or to dry. Often these scutes are near the front between the costal(side) and vertebral (back) scutes, or in the back between the costals and vertebrals. If you look at your turtles scutes closly you may be able to see a scute that looks out of place or asymettric, squishes other scutes or grows outwards as the turtle grows. Extra scutes are usually not a serious health problem, they just cause a turtles shell to grow slightly abnormally. Thanks for being concerned about your turtles.

If you look at a turtle's back, you'll see 13 main scutes, or sections of the shell - five down the middle and four on each side of that. If you count more than 13, those are extra. Most often, there's an extra one on each side, or the vertebral scutes will be doubled. I do rescue, and I've had dozens of sliders pass through my hands, and have only seen ONE that had too few scutes (three on each side instead of four).

Try Reptomin pellets - most hatchlings have no trouble eating them, and most turtles like them.

Katrina
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1.2 Eastern Muds - Fred, Ethel, Edith
0.1 Iguana - Tiffel
Foster turtles: More than I'd like the husband to know about.