How to prevent soft shells on a baby painted turtle?

well durring april i found a little baby painted turtle in a swimming pool and rescued it. i figure that he is almost 1 year old and has grown alot for a little one. the problem im having is that his shell is soft. is this normal or should i be doing something about it. he mainly eats crickets. is there something i should be giving him like a suplement or something. well thanks for the help in advance

How to prevent soft shells on a baby painted turtle?
Turtles need TWO different lights. A basking bulb in a circular clamp lamp overtop of a land area so the turtle can bask and thermoregulate. The basking bulb only emits UVA rays wich are for heat.

A flourescent bulb is needed with a strip light. This bulb is the UVB bulb wich allows the turtle to absorb the calcium. It needs to emit 5 percent or higher uvb rays. I use Exo- Terra Repti-Glo 5.0 or my turtles. Ive also used Zoo Meds Reptisun 5.0, and 10.0.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v704/l...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v704/l...
Reply:3 Things: Diet, virus, bacterial infection.



Steven Wolf
Reply:I have two red-eared sliders and supplement their diet with pieces of Cuttle Fish bone for calcium and they love it. You may wish to crumble some of this into the tank. Also be sure that your turtle has a good basking ledge--basking is very, very important to ensure the shell is in good condition.



Best,

Katie!
Reply:You should dust your crickets with Repti-Cal. Its a calcium supplement. Just put a little in paper bag with your crickets and shake a little right before you feed them to your turtle. You should also be offering Leaf Lettuce (not iceburg), and some varius vegetables to him for food. The also have a calcium supplement that you can put in the drinking water.

P.S. Make sure you are feeding your crickets well. Put some of the Repti-Cal on the cricket food also.
Reply:Good Luck on that!
Reply:soft shell is bad, and can be deadly if left untreated.



Make sure he is eating alot of calcium. crickets have calcium in them, but you might want to think about a calcium supplement. Also, make sure he is getting a lot of sun light. do you have a basking lamp that emits uv rays?



with out uv rays and vitamin D3, the calcium won't goto his bones, which will cause his bones to weaken until he dies. Soft shell is a sign of this starting to happen.



Also... did he have a soft shell when you found him? he might just have a soft shell from being young. If he grew alot and his shell was soft when you found him, it might just be that his shell didn't harden yet. But you should still make sure he has the lighting and try to find a good supplement.



good luck raising your baby turtle! that's cool that you rescued him. =]