Turtle Shell Peeling (Beginners 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?

Turtle shell peeling is a perfectly normal process that all turtles go through. It is especially common for turtles that are still growing, and it can happen to adult turtles as well. But excessive shell peeling in adult turtles usually means that there is a problem.

But, even in the case of younger turtles excessive shell peeling it’s not something good, and it usually means that you should take a closer look at your turtle and its surroundings to see if everything is in order. But before we take a look t those things, we should start by taking a quick look at what part of the shell is actually peeling, since the shell itself is not exactly the one peeling off.

What Are the Scutes

The part of the shell that is peeling is called a scute, and it’s not exactly a part of the shell, but it’s an extra layer of protection.

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, or in order to make room for newer healthier scutes.

Why Turtles Scutes Peel Off

Most often you will see young turtles sending their scutes, not adults, as growth is the main reason cutes 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.

To Prevent an Infection

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 o them, and that is to remove some scutes.

If the shell of your turtle is peeling off excessively, you might want to take a look at how clean the water in the tank is. If the water is usually very dirty then there is a good chance that the excessive peeling is happening because the turtle is trying to fight off bacteria.

I would recommend you to check those two articles where you will find all the information that you will ever need on how to keep your turtle and tank clean, without having to change the water too often: Do Turtles Smell? What to Expect and How to Prevent and Why Does My Turtle Tank Smell? (How to Get Rid of the Smell).

And one more thing that might help is ensuring that your turtle has a good baking area, when turtles bask they also get rid of a lot of bacteria, that can’t survive in the heat of the basking area. Here is an article on how to make a proper basking area: Guide for Lighting and Heating a Turtle Tank and Basking Area, and if you already have a basking area but your turtle refuses to use it, you might want to check out this article: Why Is My Turtle Not Basking? Find Out What to Do.

Now let’s continue with what can cause excessive shell peeling.

Damaged Scutes/Shell

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.

If your turtle recently got hit or bitten by something, it’s perfectly normal for the affected scutes to peel off. This is what happens when the cutes get damaged.

One more thing that can cause excessive shedding are sharp decorations in the tank. From what I’ve noticed, rough stones seem to cause a lot of small scratches on the shell, as turtles like to hide under, or around them. And while those scratches aren’t dangerous, as they add up, the scutes will need to get replaced.

Bad Water

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.

The only proper way to see if this is the problem is to 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.

If it turns out that the ammonia is the problem you can either use bottled water to fill the tank, (I personally don’t recommend you to do this since it can get quite expensive over time), or you can get some ammonia water treatments.

Now that we discussed why the scutes fall and how you should treat the cause of the problem, let’s have a look at what you should do when the shell of your turtle is peeling.

What to Do if the Scutes of Your Turtle Are Peeling Off

The first and most important thing that you have to do is to refrain from removing the scutes with your hand. Doing so will hurt the turtle (yes, turtles can feel their shell).

I know that it can be hard not to remove them yourself, especially when they are almost entirely off, but don’t do this as it will only hurt the turtle.

If you want to help your turtle get the scutes off faster, what you can do is give it 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.

Now, there are a few more things that you can do, like the ones that we discussed earlier, but just as important as knowing what to do, is knowing when to do them, after all, you don’t want to spend time and money testing the water of your turtle, or getting a more powerful filter when there is no need to.

So, let’s see what are the cases in which you should do something and which are the cases in which you shouldn’t.

Should I Worry That the Shell of My Turtle Is Peeling Off?

If you have a baby or juvenile turtle, then it’s completely normal for the cutes 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 sucre fall off on its own.

If your adult turtle has a lot of scutes pealing at the same time, you have to take a look at the water inside the tank and see if it’s dirty and if it’s not you should test it to see if it has too much ammonia. And take a look and see if there are any sharp objects that might be damaging the shell.

One last thing I want to cover before ending the article is the difference between shell rot and shell peeling, as they can easily get confused, but are two very different things, and shell rot is very dangerous for turtles.

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.

Final Thoughts

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

Small turtles that haven’t reached maturity yet are going to shed their scutes due to the accelerated growth, this is perfectly normal. Adult turtles do shed from time to time, but only one or two scutes at a 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 shell peeling. 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.