Do Turtles Shed? (Guide with Pictures)

We all know that reptiles, like snakes and lizards, will shed their skin periodically. But what about turtles? They are also reptiles, but unlike most reptiles, they don’t have that much skin to begin with, do they shed their skin, or do they shed their shell?

Turtles shed the scutes on the shell as well as their skin. This process is especially common among younger turtles, but it can also happen to adult turtles, and it’s not a cause for concern. But excessive shedding is a problem, and it’s usually caused by an infection or a disease.

So turtles are two different types of shedding that turtles can go through. Skin shedding and scute (shell) shedding. Both types are very different, and depending on the type of shedding that your turtle is going through, you will have to act differently. So let’s take a closer look at each shedding process and see why it’s taking place and what you should do to help your turtle.

Shell Shedding and Scute Shedding

The shell of a turtle is made out of bones, and those bones are covered by thin plates called scutes. Those scutes are made out of keratin, the same thing that our fingernails are made out of, but unlike our fingernails, they can’t keep up with the growth of the turtle, so they fall off in order to make room for new scutes. But scutes can fall for a wide variety of reasons, and most of them are not good.

Why Turtles Shed Their Scutes

Most often you will see young turtles sending their scutes, not adults, as growth is the main reason scutes start falling off. When adult turtles shed their scutes, it’s usually as a way of protecting themselves.

The role of the scutes is quite simple, protection. Despite the toughness of the bones that make up the shell, they have one big problem, they can’t repair themselves. So the scutes act as a barrier that keeps bacteria away and protects the bones of the shell from daily wear and tear.

So, one possible reason why the scutes have started peeling is to prevent an infection. As you might have already noticed, turtles are not exactly the cleanest animals, even as pets. So over time, different bacteria will gather on the shell, and at one point there will be so many that the turtle will be in real danger. So, it will do the only thing that it can to get rid of them, and that is to remove some scutes.

Another reason why turtles shed their scutes is that the scutes are damaged, and can’t offer proper protection. Scutes are for the shell of a turtle, what screen protectors are for our smartphones. They will probably save the screen of the phone when we drop it from the table, but after that, we will have to change the screen protector.

And to keep the same analogy going, screen protectors are not there only to save the screen from big impacts, they are there to prevent small scratches that come with daily use. And you most likely won’t change the protector just because it has one small scratch, but you will change it when you have 10 or more. Scutes are just like that, they prevent the shell from taking any damage, and when a scute is too damaged it will get replaced.

This one mostly applies to pet turtles. High ammonia levels can cause scutes to fall off. Unlike the ones we discussed earlier, this is not a natural process, the scutes don’t fall off on their own, they are forced to do so by the ammonia in the water.

Now that we discussed why scutes fall, let’s have a look at what you should do when your turtle is shedding.

What to Do if Your Turtle Is Shedding Its Scutes

As you might have already assumed, what you have to do is based on the reason your turtle is shedding, but no matter what the reason is you should never peel the scutes with your hand, or anything else, you have to let the scutes fall off on their own. Removing the scutes too early will hurt the turtle and leave it vulnerable, since the scute below is most likely not completely formed. So be patient and let the scute fall off on its own.

Now let’s take each case in part.

If you have a baby or juvenile turtle, then it’s completely normal for the scute to come off from time to time, even more than one at a time. So you don’t have to do anything in this case, just let nature run its course.

If your adult turtle has just one scute coming off then it’s most likely due to daily wear and tear, so again there is nothing bad happening, and you should let the scute fall off on its own.

If your adult turtle has a lot of scutes peeling at the same time, you have to take a look at the water inside the tank. If it’s dirty, there is a good chance that your turtle is trying to prevent an infection, in which case you have to clean the tank more often or get a better water filter, so I would recommend you to check those two articles where I cover the subject more in-depth: Do Turtles Smell? What to Expect and How to Prevent, and Why Does My Turtle Tank Smell? (How to Get Rid of the Smell).

If your tank is clean, then most likely there is a problem with the water itself, so you should get yourself a water testing kit, like this one: Ammonia Api Test Kit, the test will come with detailed instructions on how to use it (it’s very simple), and what are the safe levels of ammonia.

Before moving to the next part, I want to tell you one last tip that will help with scute shedding, and that tip is to give your turtle food that contains a vitamin A and E, those two vitamins are essential for the health of the shell, and they will help your turtle shed the old scutes faster, and develop new and healthy ones.

Shell Rot vs Scute Shedding

Shell rot and scute shedding are usually mistaken for one another, but they couldn’t be any more different, and shell rot is many times more dangerous even than the worst shedding.

Shell rot can be caused by a lot of things like poor water conditions, improper diet, bad water temperature, or damage to the shell.

A turtle that has shell rot will show the following signs:

Strange indentations in the shell.
White spots on the shell.
Pink Spots. In severe cases, the white spots will start to become pink and you will be able to see the flesh underneath the shell.
Soft spots in the shell in general.

Here are a few pictures of turtles that suffer from early stages of shell rot, as you can see, they can easily be mistaken for early signs of shedding.

Shell rot can cause a lot of problems for turtles, but if you act on time and take them to the vet quickly, and follow the treatment, everything should be fine.

Now let’s move on to skin shedding.

Turtle Skin Shedding

Skin shedding and shell shedding are two very different things, but they mostly have the same causes.

A little bit of skin shedding is perfectly normal for all turtles, and it only becomes a problem when it becomes excessive. The fact that turtles are shedding a lot of skin is usually a sign that something bad is happening with the water in the tank, or with the turtle itself.

What Causes Excessive Shedding in Turtles

Here are the reasons why a turtle can shed skin excessively:

Sudden growth, this is completely normal for turtles who haven’t reached maturity yet. Turtle maturity is based on size, more than on age. So to see if this is the cause simply use the search function of our site and type the species you are interested in and “size” and you will find an article that will tell what is the average size, or you can do the same thing using Google.

Overheating, if your turtle has already reached maturity then most likely the problem is something else, and one of the most common causes is overheating. The temperature of the basking area should be around 90 and 95°F (32 and 35°C). If your basking area is hotter than this, you should reduce the temperature, if you need help doing this you can check out this article: Guide for Lighting and Heating a Turtle Tank and Basking Area.

Vitamin A is very important in the diet of a turtle. Too much or too little vitamin A can lead to excessive skin shedding. If your turtle gets too much vitamin A the skin will start to thicken which will lead to shedding, and too much vitamin A can also lead to liver damage. Too little vitamin A will make the skin very thin and fragile.

High ammonia levels can damage the skin, which will cause shedding. To find out if this is the problem, you have to get a water testing kit, like this Ammonia Api Test Kit, and see if the quality of the water is your problem.

An infection, infections can be caused by quite a few things, but the most common one is a dirty tank. So, if you are struggling to keep the tank clean, you should check out those two articles: Do Turtles Smell? What to Expect and How to Prevent, and Why Does My Turtle Tank Smell? (How to Get Rid of the Smell), which contains advice on how to keep your turtle and tank clean. And most importantly, if you suspect that an infection is the cause of the excessive shedding you should immediately go to a vet with your turtle, infections can be very dangerous if not treated properly.

Final Thoughts

And that’s about it when it comes to shedding, the main takeaway is this:

Small turtles that haven’t reached maturity yet are going to shed their skin and their scutes due to the accelerated growth. Adult turtles do shed from time to time. If your turtle is an adult, and it’s shedding excessively, you should check the ammonia levels of the tank and see if the tank is clean enough.

If you can’t find a reason for the excessive shedding, the best thing that you can do is go to the vet, the vet will tell you if your turtle has a health problem that is causing the shedding, or not.

I hope this article answered all the questions that you had about turtle shedding. If you have any question that wasn’t answered in the article, you can leave them in the comment section below, and I will answer them as soon as possible.