As some of you know, I 'rescued', of sorts, a redtail from a kid at my school who was greatly miscaring for her. A few of you are aware of her rather hostile attitude. As such, it has only been recently that I've really been able to handle her and look her over.

My boyfriend and I were cleaning her tank yesterday, with him spending some quality time with her while I did the hard work. And he pointed something out to me.

Absinthe has very weak scales. In the areas where her skin 'rolls' together when she's curled up, a few rows of scales bend outwards... like they are bent back. She also has some deformed scales. The scales that are bent back bend and break really easy.

Now, it's a stupid question, but. Is this because of a calcium deficiency in her diet? Or is it something else?

I've been reading about redtails, as has my boyfriend, and I've browsed these forums, but I haven't read about anything that sounds like what she has.

My boyfriend is out of town at the moment, so I'm going to attempt to get her to cooperate with me long enough for me to snap a few photos of the areas I'm talking about... so I'll hopefully have those soon. In the meantime, any advice? If it's a simple calcium deficiency, I can deal with that no problem. I'm just worried it might be something bigger.