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20-Jan-07, 07:29 PM
|  | Regular Member | | | | hatchling turtle with soft shell
i recently bought a hatchling long necked turtle from a pet shop and when i was holding it to see if it was male or female i noticed that its shell was soft could anyone give me some information on wether if is normal or not iam really concerned about it |
20-Jan-07, 07:32 PM
| | | no its not normal. and its not good for them. but, i recently brought two from a place and they both have soft shell.
make sure they have calcium in therre tanks, you can buy the calicuim cubes from all good pet shops. and also, buy them a uv light or hav them outside in the sun. mine had really soft shells when i got them, and they smelled bad from it, but since i have had them, they dont smell and there shell is getting harder. but it takes many months before its good again. hope that helps
mel.  |
20-Jan-07, 07:38 PM
| | Regular Member | | | | | thanks i got 2 calicuim cubes for my turtles and i will put my uv light on her |
20-Jan-07, 07:40 PM
| | | | good stuff mate. it will be fine now, just make sure as soon as the calcium cubes run out, replace them straight away. make sure the water is always clean too. and if u dont hav a uv light yet, take her out in the sun in a tub for awhile until u get a light. any more questions pls ask |
20-Jan-07, 07:57 PM
| | Regular Member | | | | | do u know what would be best to feed it |
20-Jan-07, 10:01 PM
| | Regular Member | Join Date: Mar-06 Location: Sydney | | | Nothing beats natural sunlight, try to take them outside for a couple of hours a day. Be very careful not to let them overheat though. Read the caresheet on the link below, it is written by one of the memebers of this list who has a wealth of knowledge on keeping turtles. http://members.optusnet.com.au/~expansa1/gallery.html
Hope that helps. |
20-Jan-07, 10:08 PM
| | Regular Member | | | | | thanks alot for the caresheet |
21-Jan-07, 11:49 AM
|  | Invert nut Subscriber | Join Date: Oct-05 Location: QLD Gender:  | | | | it is a totaly fixable problem, just keep the calcium and uv up to him and he will be fine |
21-Jan-07, 12:04 PM
| | Suspended | Join Date: Jul-04 Location: Not on APS Gender: | | | | Hatchling Eastern snake-necked turtle shells do not usually start to harden up properly until they are around six months of age! A short-necked turtle of any species should have a much harder shell when hatching. This is because a short necks' shell is folded in half length ways in the egg shell and a long-necked turtle' shell is folded in half width ways across it's shell and needs to be much more flexible to do this. An Eastern snake-necked turtles need for calcium is not as high as a short-necked turtles' after hatching either.
Also zeke, it is impossible to sex hatchling and juvenile turtles until they are around 10 centimetres SCL.
Cheers,
Craig | |
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