emergency come turtle pros help me @!@!@!@?

Question

my baby red ear sliders turtles has soft shell diease i would like to know how to cure and what foods have lots of calcuim??

Answer 1

Soft shell is cured by adding UVB lighting and UVA lighting mixed with the proper diet. If your turtle is under 4" in diameter, you need to feed it as many pelets as it can eat in 5 minutes in the morning. Feed it once a day. You can also add small guppies to it's tank which will improve their health. If your turtle is over 4" in diameter it needs to eat 50% feeder fish (goldfish, minnows, guppies, rosy reds, and other small minnows), 25% a good pelet food, and 25% leafy greens (kale, mustard, collards, but never iceburg or romane lettuce due to the fact that they are 99% water and just useless calories for them).
The proper diet and lighting together will usually correct soft shell in about a month. If this doesn't help then a trip to a vet is in store. You can also use TetraFauna's VitaShell which helps strengthens shells.

Answer 2

1. Baby turtles have softish shells- if the shell flexes with a plasticy resistance and springs back to normal, this is pretty common fo a very small turtle. True softshell is more like a thick but pliable leather.

2. If it is true softshell, you need to work on diet, habitat, and lighting.

Calcium needs dietary calcium availability (good turtle pellets, live or frozen/thawed 'fish foods' like shrimp, krill, worms, bugs, etc,- it is best if the worms, etc. are 'gut loaded' with vitamins and calcium.

Vitamin D3 is also needed. It can be dietary (pellets), vitamins (in the insect gut loads), in some foods like beef heart, or from exposure to a good UVB light.

The basic cares need to be solid- big tank of clean, warm water, etc. as outlined at http://www.redearsider.com

Answer 3

smptoms:
The carapace (shell) is soft and may be distorted. The legs may be weak and the terrapin may have trouble feeding.
Probable cause:
Dietary calcium deficiency, either relative or absolute.
Treatment:
Very severe cases are unlikely to survive. Treatment consists of calcium injections plus revised diet and maintenance under a UV-B emitting light.

usually once the shell is soft its too late. way to not take proper care of your pet. too bad theres a thousand other people like you buying a turtle right now, that wont be interested in how to properly take care of it until its too late.

looks like next time you buy an animal you might want to properly learn to care for it BEFORE you kill it. i wish there was a way to sticky the cases like this i see every few days on here. if it stayed on top maybe more people would at least google ... red eared slider... and learn a few things..

sad.

Answer 4

calcium is not everything it does no good haveing it if there bodys can do anything with it
most likly your problem is poor lighting
get a kiddie pool put it outside put a big rock in the middle and provide SOME shade and put a small hand full of dried dog food in there for a snake fill the pool only about half way if that
let the little guy get some sun!!
and maybe get a book and educate yourself

Answer 5

I second the idea of using vita-shell. Also there's a product called Repto-Cal which is simply powdered calcium and can be sprinkled over your turtles food. You can find both of these at any major pet store. Hope your turtle gets better!

Answer 6

on this sight i heard baby turtles have soft shells untill matured check for your self, this sight also gives remidies to cure your turtle. You might want to try drying ure turtle off and applying neosporin all over the shell and letting him bask ina completly dry tank for an hour. Also for the food, reptomin is inexpensive and my little slider loves it. It is easy for his little mouth to grasp.