Hi everyone,

I've been a turtle hobbyist for >20 years and the one species that recently have been always giving me problems are Western Painteds. The last 5 that I've kept always ended up developing shell issues pertaining to rot, fungus, or MBD that lead to death. All the other turtles that I've had from sliders and maps, to musks, to snappers, to asian box, and to Eastern/Midland/Southern painteds, etc always thrived well. They all live either indoors or outdoors, given the same pelleted foods with occasional live ones and vegetables, etc.

Now I recently acquired another Western adult from Petsmart. NOw, I know what you're thinking..."the ones from Petsmart are sick to begin with...", but the ones in the past have not been from there and also ended up dying on me. So I've got this guy for about 1 week now and I'm noticing a similar shell pattern (please see pictures) that occurs with Western painteds that eventually lead to them becoming sick.

My questions are, have anyone else experienced this? What could the shell markings be? Should I move him back indoors under lamps instead of outdoors under sun? I live in Houston, TX and it gets pretty blazing hot out here (95-100s degrees). Should I not feed him certain things (shrimp, earthworms, etc?)? I'm out of ideas. Thanks!

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