YBS Plastron Shedding

[charlwm]

Hi,

I have a yellow bellied slider turtle, she is about 4 months old. She lives in a tank with another YBS who is the same age. They have rocks and peat bogwood and a pebble substrate. I treat the water with ammonia detoxifier and biological filtration booster. They have a filter and I feed them out of the tank in a separate bowl. They eat prawns, squid, mussels, berries, cabbage, turtle sticks and mealworms as a treat.

Recently I have noticed that when she is dry, one of her squares on her plastron appears to be peeling off at the corner. It catches when she walks and it is worrying me. Is this normal, are they supposed to shed their plastron?

She has always shed her skin and I can see this coming off in the water, I know this is normal and I have also read that they shed their top shell, but I cannot find anything about them shedding their plastron.

I am a bit worried about shell rot, the other turtle does not appear to have anything similar.

Is this normal?

Thanks, charl

[AnythingWithAShell]

Don't worry, it's normal Whatever you do though, don;t pick or pull at it, even though it looks like it's catching and annoying her. She'll be fine, and it'll come off when it's ready.

[SteveCourty]

This is due to growth If you means the scutes mine has recently done the same. Its the natural way for the shell to grow so ive been told anyway

[charlwm]

Ahh, thats a relief!!! Thank You =D

[AnythingWithAShell]

No bother. They don't half get us worried, our critters, do they?

[Graham]

Yes it's perfectly normal, but I would cut out the seafood, berries, and the cabbage. If you want to feed them fish then freshwater fish like trout is much better, most turt species have trouble digesting fruit sugars which are not a part of their natural diet, and cabbage, like other members of the Brasicca family, is high in oxalates which interfere with the processing of calcium.

Why are you using an ammonia detoxifier? Ammonia is what the bacteria in the filter feed on, without it you'll never cultivated sufficient bacteria for efficient bio-filtration, and will be forever adding chemicals in an attempt to maintain water quality.

A decent size external filter filled with bio-media is all you need, once established it should look after itself and all you need to do is to monitor the water quality.