dearlymel3
New Member
Hello,
My younger brother has two yellow belly sliders that my mom surprised him with from Chinatown back in July 2018. My brother's birthday was back in March and after I told him the hard work to have a turtle, he said no thanks. So you can imagine the learning curve we've been having the last month and a half. We named them Lightning (for his quick swimming speed) and Courage (the skittish one that we hoped would be less cowardly that the dog LOL).
We've noticed for the last two weeks that their shell scutes are turning a white dull color along with their spine turning white. We think it was due to the high basking heat (90-100 degrees), and thus moved the lamp higher. It's now around 85 degrees.
The water is around 78-79 degrees when we have the heat lamp on, and around 75 degrees (room temperature) when the lights are off. We have a 40 gallon Aqueon internal filter and have the babies in a 10 gallon plastic tub (I know, too small for the two one-inch turtles, but we're limited on space and funds to expand their home for now). The only objects in the tub are two fire-bricks stacked on each other with their basking rocks on top (we tried to DIY their basking area instead of spending $20 on the pre-made ones at the store). We use the Imagitarium water decholorinator when we change their water (I was doing 1/2 gallon water change a day, a whole tank change every 4-5 days).
I was concerned because for the first time we waited seven days to change their water (school started), and I thought they would be fine with the filter constantly on. We feed them their turtle pellet (one per turtle per day), and one freeze-dried cricket (Fluker's with the calcium powder gut) inside their tank (again, I know, I've been experimenting with feeding them outside in a feeding bowl, but my brother didn't like how scared they got so we went back to inside their home tank). I've been putting cut up small cuttlefish bones (an eco-version sold at a local Petco) for the past week as well and they've been gobbling them up.
We tried giving them red-leaf lettuce, a boiled egg, and shrimp for treats (maybe once every two weeks?). We stopped with the lettuce because we noticed they would just rib small pieces and spit them back out (there were about 20 small lettuce pieces floating at the top of the water that was clogging the filter).
The problem now is that I saw their yellow plastron turning pinkish-reddish and along with some darkish shadowy spots. The pinkish-reddish are has some white mixed in as well.
I've been googling all day what could be wrong. I wasn't alarmed because they haven't been acting differently at all. They are active, swimming around, walking around on the bottom of the tub, basking on their rocks, happily eating. There's no behavioral changes, sideways swimming, or any other alarming behavior. My husband went on google and determined that perhaps they were sunburnt (the white dullness of their scutes), hence the lamp height change. I found many sites saying it could be shell rot and septicemia.
If any of you could share your expertise, experience, and advice, we would greatly appreciate it. We don't have the funds to take them to the vet as he is a high-schooler and I'm in-between jobs. If need be, I could try to find a place that would be willing to charge my credit card as a last resort.
Here are pictures of Lightining and Courage:
1. Top View of Both (8.31.18): http://tinypic.com/r/sweg0n/9
2. Bottom View of Both (8.24.18): http://tinypic.com/r/14dofw6/9 (It seems like their bottom was already turning pinkish on the sides looking back now?)
3. Courage Top View (9.10.18): http://tinypic.com/r/6hrtx5/9
4. Courage Bottom View (9.10.18): http://tinypic.com/r/2jal1dl/9
5. Lightning Top View (9.10.18): http://tinypic.com/r/9fmhwx/9
6. Lightning Bottom View (9.10.18): http://tinypic.com/r/256b43s/9
I'll be making calls to the local vets to see if they have any experience with yellow belly sliders and ask for quotes. In the meanwhile, I really appreciate any help you can provide.
Thank you very much.
My younger brother has two yellow belly sliders that my mom surprised him with from Chinatown back in July 2018. My brother's birthday was back in March and after I told him the hard work to have a turtle, he said no thanks. So you can imagine the learning curve we've been having the last month and a half. We named them Lightning (for his quick swimming speed) and Courage (the skittish one that we hoped would be less cowardly that the dog LOL).
We've noticed for the last two weeks that their shell scutes are turning a white dull color along with their spine turning white. We think it was due to the high basking heat (90-100 degrees), and thus moved the lamp higher. It's now around 85 degrees.
The water is around 78-79 degrees when we have the heat lamp on, and around 75 degrees (room temperature) when the lights are off. We have a 40 gallon Aqueon internal filter and have the babies in a 10 gallon plastic tub (I know, too small for the two one-inch turtles, but we're limited on space and funds to expand their home for now). The only objects in the tub are two fire-bricks stacked on each other with their basking rocks on top (we tried to DIY their basking area instead of spending $20 on the pre-made ones at the store). We use the Imagitarium water decholorinator when we change their water (I was doing 1/2 gallon water change a day, a whole tank change every 4-5 days).
I was concerned because for the first time we waited seven days to change their water (school started), and I thought they would be fine with the filter constantly on. We feed them their turtle pellet (one per turtle per day), and one freeze-dried cricket (Fluker's with the calcium powder gut) inside their tank (again, I know, I've been experimenting with feeding them outside in a feeding bowl, but my brother didn't like how scared they got so we went back to inside their home tank). I've been putting cut up small cuttlefish bones (an eco-version sold at a local Petco) for the past week as well and they've been gobbling them up.
We tried giving them red-leaf lettuce, a boiled egg, and shrimp for treats (maybe once every two weeks?). We stopped with the lettuce because we noticed they would just rib small pieces and spit them back out (there were about 20 small lettuce pieces floating at the top of the water that was clogging the filter).
The problem now is that I saw their yellow plastron turning pinkish-reddish and along with some darkish shadowy spots. The pinkish-reddish are has some white mixed in as well.
I've been googling all day what could be wrong. I wasn't alarmed because they haven't been acting differently at all. They are active, swimming around, walking around on the bottom of the tub, basking on their rocks, happily eating. There's no behavioral changes, sideways swimming, or any other alarming behavior. My husband went on google and determined that perhaps they were sunburnt (the white dullness of their scutes), hence the lamp height change. I found many sites saying it could be shell rot and septicemia.
If any of you could share your expertise, experience, and advice, we would greatly appreciate it. We don't have the funds to take them to the vet as he is a high-schooler and I'm in-between jobs. If need be, I could try to find a place that would be willing to charge my credit card as a last resort.
Here are pictures of Lightining and Courage:
1. Top View of Both (8.31.18): http://tinypic.com/r/sweg0n/9
2. Bottom View of Both (8.24.18): http://tinypic.com/r/14dofw6/9 (It seems like their bottom was already turning pinkish on the sides looking back now?)
3. Courage Top View (9.10.18): http://tinypic.com/r/6hrtx5/9
4. Courage Bottom View (9.10.18): http://tinypic.com/r/2jal1dl/9
5. Lightning Top View (9.10.18): http://tinypic.com/r/9fmhwx/9
6. Lightning Bottom View (9.10.18): http://tinypic.com/r/256b43s/9
I'll be making calls to the local vets to see if they have any experience with yellow belly sliders and ask for quotes. In the meanwhile, I really appreciate any help you can provide.
Thank you very much.