turtle question #2

Question
Thank you for the information, it looks like the shell flaking thing is his growing, but the other info concerns me. He spends all his time in the muck on the bottom. We live in San Diego, and it is warm during the day, but gets pretty cold at night. The pond is outside and usually gets about 3-4 hours of good sun each day. He also has a couple of places to climb out of the water all the way. Is he starting to hibrinate? Will he go in & out of hibrination with our weather fluctuations? Is it possible that he still hasn't settled in yet? Thanks Again.  Lucia
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The text above is a follow-up to ...

-----Question-----
We have a 350 gallon koi pond with 5 koi, 1 big old goldfish and lots of plattys. There are lots of plants too. We got a red eared slider about two weeks ago. We have not seen him pull out of the water to dry out or bask at all. He could be doing it when we arent around. When we pulled him out to check on his health, we noticed that his shell was kind of flaking off almost like a fingernail or a birds beak. We think that maybe he is growing and his shell is molting (for lack of a better word) the flakes are all shaped like the sections of his shell that they are flaking off of. Of all the nature shows I've watched, and all the books I've read, I've never seen how a turtle's shell grows. Thank You for any insight you can give me.      Lucia - San Diego
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Turtles do shed their shell scales, and skin as well. As long as the flakes are like paperthin fingernails and the tissue underneath looks healthy it is nothing to worry about usually.

They also worship the sun and should bask nicely when it is out and warm. You might not have a good turtle-friendly basking site- they like thinks like mock-fallen logs, etc. that let them get totally out.

If this is indoors or shaded, or if the weather is cool, you might want to think about adding a heat lamp and/or a UV-B lamp.  

Answer
Hibernation is triggered by dropping temps and shortening days- it is entirely possible that yours is prepping for hibernation.

If it does hibernate in the mud in the pond, it will stay there until the water temps come up enough for long enough to trigger waking.

2 weeks is usually long enough for settling, but with a nice, big pond it might be taking longer.

Now that I know you are in California, let me hook you up with the California Turtle and Tortoise Club at http://www.tortoise.org These guys are great, and I am pretty sure you can find someone nearby that can take a quick look at your set-up (usually for 'beer and pizza') to see if there is anything really amiss.

Send them a quick note or call and see what happens!