stunted turtles?

[BlackLava]

idk if any of yall remember, but a little while back i picked up two 1.5 year old res's off of craigslist. the previous owner said she didnt have time to feed them, so they are really small. anywho, since they have been with us, they havent grown!! they eat like pigs and they are very active, but they arent growing, i think its too late for them to really grow, and i think they may be stunted do you think they might grow a little bit, or just really slowly, or what?

[Adrya]

They should still be able to grow just fine. What are you feeding them? are they getting enough calcium? how long are their carapaces (from head to tail)? do they have a heat basking bulb and a UVA/UVB bulb?

[BlackLava]

they have the bulbs, they get aquatic turtle pellets and feeder fish, and id say they are about 3in long.

[mongoose5971]

Did you buy the UV bulb new? How long has it been? I'd say stunting is possible, or at least temporarily. It's likely the previous owner didn't have the correct lighting along with not feeding them enough so right now with proper husbandry you're probably just getting them back healthy again, at which point they should start growing. If it's been over a year that would seem to be too long.

[TammyJamaica]

Do they look malformed at all, or normal? Are their shells hard?

Remember turtles do grow very slowly. As long as they are getting correct nutrition and light, they should be fine.

Do you have any pics?

[BlackLava]

im not sure how old the bulb is, but it might be time to get a new one. i forgot about them being defective after a while, i believe its about 6mo that you have to replace them? or was it a year? i dont believe the previous owner had ANY light on them.

they dont look malformed or anything, no soft shells, visually, it doesnt look like anything is wrong with them. its just that they are at least 1.5 years of age and they are nowhere near the size of my other ones. i have three other res's that i raised from the size of a quarter, now the biggest female is the size of a med dinner plate, and the other two are slightly smaller. i didnt have any trouble getting them to grow, they grew VERY quickly.

here is the link i posted when i first got them, they dont look any different now than they did before.

Ok so i came home with the turtles :)

[TammyJamaica]

I checked that link and see what you mean about the size difference!

I think they will certainly pick up with the growth now that they are with you.