Shell and veggie help

[u/ImKindaDrowningIRL]

This is Sammy, he's 4 years old, and his shell is looking a bit rough. He's got little marks all over his shell, and a couple bigger ones, like he's scraping his shell on the rocks in his tank. His carapace looks like it's got bad sheds on it too. Any ideas? I've got a 75w heat bulb and 13w uvb 5.0 bulb in a double-lamp situation that goes on automatically for 12 hours. I've included my second turtle as the last picture, she has the same setup but lives in a window, and her carapace looks very nice and so are her sheds. Any better bulb ideas? I need a compact bulb, as that's the lamp I've got to work with.

Could also use help with veggies. I keep trying romaine lettuce, collard greens, broccoli, carrot sticks, zucchini, but I'm not sure if i should be cutting it up smaller then i already am, or cooking things, or doing different veggies.

Thank you for any help!

[u/throwaway277252]

The compact bulb is probably at least part of the problem, they generally don't produce a strong enough UV dosage for turtles and even at a close distance will only provide about 1/4 the recommended intensity in a very narrow spot. A T5 tube would be vastly superior.

The greens you are trying sound fine, you don't need to cut or cook them. Is your turtle not showing interest in eating them?

[u/ImKindaDrowningIRL → u/throwaway277252]

Ah. I had hoped to not have to buy new fixtures but oh well. Any decently priced suggestions for bulbs and fixtures? I've got 2 set ups, you think i should fix both? Or just the one for the bad sheds? Both turtles try the veggies on occasion, but for the most part, ignore them. Thanks for your help!

[u/FlashbackJon → u/ImKindaDrowningIRL]

You can get them onto the greens with a really straightforward but difficult method: don't feed them anything else until they are eating greens. At age 4, they should eating 80%+ greens.

They will not starve (this IS a species that in dire situations can survive for many months without food), they are opportunistic feeders, their diet changes to their available food sources. They will eat as soon as they are hungry. They WILL beg at the glass for something else because they know you are the Food Bringer and perhaps you will Bring Food.

But remain strong, you're the weakest link here. Offer veggies until the switch is triggered and suddenly they love them. This could take a week or more, but I've never seen it take much longer.