Turtle Skin Shedding (Beginners Guide | Causes + Treatment)

Skin shedding is a process that all turtles go through at least a few times throughout their life. Sometimes it’s barely noticeable, and sometimes it can be a real problem. If your turtle is shedding just a little bit of skin, that this is perfectly normal and there is no reason to worry, but if your turtle is shedding a lot of skin there is a problem, and it needs to be solved.

Turtle skin shedding is a natural process that all turtles go through as they grow in size. Excessive skin shedding is usually caused by sudden growth, high temperatures, excessive vitamin A, high ammonia levels, and improper basking.

As you can see, there are quite a few things that can cause excessive skin shedding, but luckily most of them are very easy to solve. So let’s start with the first one on the list, sudden growth.

Sudden Growth

Turtles usually grow at a relatively slow pace. This means that they will only shed a little bit of skin at a time. But if they have a sudden growth spur, they will start to shed a lot of their skin.

The problem is that turtles aren’t supposed to have sudden growth spurs. They are supposed to grow at a relatively slow pace.

If you don’t correct the way you are feeding your turtle, this can lead to even more serious health problems like pyramiding, obesity, etc.

So how much and how often should you feed your turtle? Fortunately, the answer is quite easy, you should feed your turtle using the size of the head method, once every 3 days.

The size of the head method is this:

The simplest way to put this method into practice is to find a small container, like a medicine cup, a shot glass, or a bottle cap. This container has to be approximately the same size as the head of your turtle, without the neck. Then you fill that container to the top, and then you can feed the food inside the container to your turtle.

You don’t always have to use a container, you can always just estimate the food that you would need to fill its head. If you sometimes give your turtle a little too much food, and sometimes you give it a little less, there will be no problem. Your turtle won’t be affected by small differences.

This method works great because it takes into consideration the size of the turtle, and gives you a fixed amount of food that you have to give your turtle. And as the turtle grows the amount of food will grow with it.

This method was an extract from the article: How Much and How Often Should I Feed My Turtle? (+Schedule), if you want to know what other methods are out there, what you should feed your turtle, or you want a premade feeding schedule you should check out the article for all of this and more.

High Temperatures

Another problem that can cause excessive skin shedding is a high water temperature.

This is a very common problem, especially during the summer when the water can get too hot due to the heat, this is why you should always use an adjustable tank heater, but before we talk about the heater let’s take a look at what temperature you need to have in the tank.

Here is a table with the water temperature required by some of the most popular pet turtle species.

Turtle Species	Temperature Range
Red-Eared Slider	72°F – 76°F (22°C – 24°C)
Yellow-Bellied Slider	75°F – 80°F (24°C – 27°C)
Mud Turtle	74°F – 78°F (23°C – 26°C)
Spotted Turtle	75°F – 80°F (24°C – 27°C)
Map Turtle	70°F – 75°F (21°C – 24°C)
Diamondback Terrapin	75°F – 82°F (24°C – 28°C)
Painted Turtle	75°F – 80°F (24°C – 27°C)
Pond slider	78°F – 82°F (26°C – 28°C)
Musk Turtle	74°F – 82°F (23°C – 28°C)
River Cooter	72°F – 77°F (22°C – 25°C)

Now that we know what is the correct temperature for turtle tanks, let’s see how we can get that temperature.

To be able to control the temperature of the water in the tank you are going to need a water heater, but not any water heater will do. You need a water heater that:

Has a heat guard – so that your turtle won’t get too close and burn itself
Is sturdy – turtles tend to break things in their tank, so you need a heater that won’t break easily
Adjustable temperature – not all heaters are adjustable, so make sure that you get one that is
Has enough power – turtles need big tanks, and not all heaters are able to heat a turtle tank, as most of them are designed for smaller fish tanks.

If you want a recommendation, here is a link to the tank heater that I’ve been using for the last 5 years: Submersible Aquarium Heater. I don’t have too many things to say about it, it’s a good and reliable heater, it comes with a guard, and you can easily select the temperature, it can heat up a 100-gallon tank, so everything that you want from a heater.

Excessive Vitamin A

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.

In most cases, the extra vitamin A comes from leafy green vegetables (kale, spinach, broccoli) and orange and yellow vegetables (carrots, sweet potatoes, pumpkin, and other winter squash, summer squash).

If you feed your turtle any of the vegetables that I listed above you should take a short break from them, for 2 or 3 weeks. Then you can resume giving them to your turtle but in smaller quantities.

High Ammonia Levels

Despite their rough aspect, turtles are very sensitive to the quality of the water. More specifically, they are sensitive to the chemicals used to treat water. In order to make it safe for consumption.

The best way to see if this is the problem is to test the water. And you can do so using those strips: 16 in 1 Drinking Water Test Kit, this kit contains 100 strips, so it should last you for a couple of years. Or you can use whatever kit that you like, as long as it measures ammonia levels.

And speaking of, here are the levels that you want to have in your turtles’ tank:

Ammonia 0
pH between 6 and 9
Chlorine and ammonia level of 0
Nitrite level of < .5 ppm
Nitrate level of < 40 ppm

If the quality of the water is the problem, you can easily solve this problem by treating it. For the past few years, I’ve been using API products, to lower the chlorine and ammonia levels in my water, and the results have been great, so I would recommend you to check out their Amazon Store Page if you need any treatment for your water, there you will find chlorine treatments, pH treatments, and many more.

Now, let’s move from the tank to the basking area, and see what could have gone wrong there.

Improper Basking

A basking area has 3 main parts a platform, a heat bulb, and a UVB bulb. The platform is just a platform on which the turtle can sit, but the bulbs are a little bit more complex and if you don’t get them just right they can easily cause excessive skin shedding, as well as other problems.

How to Choose the Best Heat Bulb for Your Turtle

There is no such thing as a general best wattage, but there is the best wattage for each specific situation. So let’s figure out what is the best wattage for you.

In order to give an answer that will fit your setup and your turtle, we need to know two things.

The first is what temperature you can expect from a light bulb at certain distances. And second, what turtle species do you have.

Now, let’s start with the first.

Here is a chart that I made showing what temperature you should expect to achieve using different powered light bulbs at certain distances.

50 Watts	75 Watts	100 Watts	150 Watts
Distance	Temperature	Distance	Temperature	Distance	Temperature	Distance	Temperature
4 inches	104°F	4 inches	120°F	4 inches	131°F	4 inches	144°F
8 inches	81°F	8 inches	91°F	8 inches	113°F	8 inches	131°F
12 inches	73°F	12 inches	81°F	12 inches	90°F	12 inches	126°F

To make this chart I used a laser thermometer and the average temperature of the room was 75°Farenheit (24°Celsius), so you might get slightly different results depending on the temperature of your room, but unless the difference is massive the temperature of the basking area should be similar.

As for the bulbs, I’ve been using these bulbs for a few years, but from my experience, all heat bulbs are very similar, so you can use whichever you like the most. But, make sure to avoid mercury vapor bulbs, I will explain shortly why,

Now that you know what temperature to expect from a heat bulb, based on distance and wattage, it’s time to see what temperature you actually need.

Overall most turtles require a similar temperature range, but if you want to get into detail, they are slightly different. And here is a list of the most common pet turtles and their ideal basking area temperatures:

Turtle Species	Temperature Fahrenheit	Temperature Celsius
Red Eared Slider	90 – 95°F	32 – 35°C
Juvenile Red Eared Slider	95 – 100°F	29 – 37°C
Box Turtle	80 – 90°F	26 – 32°C
Juvenile Box Turtle	90 – 95°F	32 – 35°C
Map Turtle	75 – 80°F	24 – 26°C
Juvenile Map Turtle	80 – 90°F	26 – 32°C
Mud Turtle	90 – 95°F	32 – 35°C
Juvenile Mud Turtle	90 – 100°F	32 – 37°C
Musk Turtle	85 – 90°F	29 – 32°C
Juvenile Musk Turtle	90 – 100°F	32 – 37°C
Snapping Turtle	90 – 95°F	32 – 35°C
Juvenile Snapping Turtle	95 – 100°F	29 – 37°C
Pond Turtle	85 – 95°F	29 – 35°C
Juvenile Pond Turtle	90 – 100°F	32 – 37°C
Cooter	80 – 85°F	26 – 29°C
Juvenile Cooter	90 – 100°F	32 – 37°C

As you can see juvenile turtles, which means younger turtles that can’t be classified as adults, will require a temperauter that is slightly higher than that of an adult, but overall the difference is not that significant.

How to Choose the Best UVB Bulb for Your Turtle

When it comes to choosing UVB bulbs things are a little more complicated due to the huge variety of wattages, in which UVB bulbs can be found. And then there is the fact that most manufacturers have a different rating system, and some of them have no instructions at all.

So, for UVB bulbs, I am going to give you the exact distance for a few bulbs that I’ve used before that come from a reputable manufacturer, and I will provide links to Amazon, where you can get them.

Zoo Med
UVB Bulb	Distance
ReptiSun 5.0 Mini CFL	5 inches
ReptiSun 5.0 CFL	7 inches
ReptiSun 10.0 Mini CFL	7 inches
ReptiSun 10.0 CFL	10 inches
ReptiSun 5.0 T8 Linear	6 inches
ReptiSun 5.0 T5 Linear	8 inches
PowerSun 80W	7 inches
PowerSun 100W	10 inches
PowerSun 160W	22 inches

And in case you have something between the UVB bulb, like a net, or a grill, you want to move the bulb closer by one inch, as anything in between the turtle and the bulb will reduce the amount of UVB rays.

One more thing to keep in mind is that UVB bulbs will stop producing UVB rays, way before they will stop producing light. On average I would say that a UVB bulb only produces UVB rays for only half of its lifespan. I measured the amount of UVB light produced by the bulbs and noticed that after about 6 months, the amount drops considerably, so I change my light bulbs at around 6 months, and I would advise you to do the same.

And if you want to measure how much UVB light your bulb produces you can use this device. While it’s a little bit expensive, overall it will save you money since you will know exactly when the bulbs run out of UVB light, and it will help your turtle remain healthy. But it’s not a requirement.

Final Thoughts

Those are the main things that can cause a turtle to shed skin excessively. If you find and correct the problem, your turtle should stop shedding excessively in about 2 weeks. But in case this doesn’t happen, or if you notice any other strange thing with your turtle I would advise you to go see a vet with your turtle.

If there is anything else that you would like to know about turtle shedding or anything else about turtles you can always leave a question in the comment section below and I will answer you as soon as possible.