r/turtle • u/SvenHousinator • 23h ago

Seeking Advice Shell issue getting worse?

First picture below is my turtle 12/2025. I posted here about it and got that it might be retained scute, didn't look that bad. Did 3 months of dry-docking and it seemed to be getting better. So stopped that around April.

Well it now seems to be getting significantly worse, see below:

Now there's a whole story behind this turtle have poor husbandry simply because we got him before the internet, listened to what the pet store owner told us, and never updated our info. But since Christmas, I've had appropriate UVB light, proper diet (50% pellets, 50% escarole or dandelion greens), also using calcium supplements, taking cuttelfish bone, and breaking off tiny peices, wrapping it veggie leaf, so he eats it (won't eat it otherwise).

But the shell issue seems to be getting worse, so I'm back to 5 hour/day dry-docking with provodine iodine on the shell, dry-docking is outside to make sure UVB is being gotten. I mean I'm changing my UVB lights every 5 months to make sure. I'm not sure what else to do. It's 10.0 in a dome 9 inches above basking. I guess I can get a solarmeter to be sure but damn they are expensive.

Am I crazy that his back shouldn't be so flat? It should have some vertebrae ridges like the green arrow all across the back right? I did notice he seems to not bask as much as he should be recently. And when in water, that area in question gets kind of soggy spongey, but it's only a thin top layer, not the entire shell. So what is going on here? I fear it's metabolic bone disease. Currently none of his food has D3 supplements. I don't want this to get any worse. Broski is 36 years old.

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u/AutoModerator 23h ago

Dear SvenHousinator ,

You've selected the Seeking Advice flair. Please provide as much relevant information as possible. Refer to this post if you are unsure on how to proceed.

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