21
It's impossible to tell if an animal - especially a reptile like a turtle - has internal injuries from it's behavior, unless it's currently dying. A vet must examine the animal to find internal damage.
That "only a single drop of blood" came out of a wound can mean 2 things:
Either the wound didn't bleed very much
Or the rest of the blood pooled ...
17
I would be interested in hearing her reasoning for why a turtle would enjoy living in a dirty tank. Just to be clear, the tank isn't dirty because there's an excess of dirt, it's dirty because there's an excess of rotting food and feces. Basically, the turtle is living in a toilet bowl that never gets flushed.
So, why is it important to keep the tank clean ...
16
First, the turtles are eating the fish because fish are food, not friends. Turtles are omnivores and fish make up part of their natural diet. There's absolutely nothing you can do to stop it other than separating them from each other. You cannot train turtles to treat food as anything but food. You may get lucky, and have a turtle that's content with the ...
14
As covered in the other answers, your only option is to see a vet in order to have surgery done. Or in the worst case, have it humanely put to rest.
I want to stress how important it is that a professional veterinarian/surgeon takes care of this injury.
A turtle's shell is not only its spine, but its ribs as well. Below is a diagram of how turtles came to ...
12
In general a turtle's diet is comprised of 50% protein, 30% vegetables, 10% greens, and 10% fruit. The protein can even be divided up so that it's 25% commercial food, and 25% fresh food.
You should feed the turtle once daily since it's so young right now, but as it gets older you can move to a schedule of every other day. Some people even go so low as ...
11
Turtles are cold-blooded animals. As such they receive heat from the sun and other ambient sources. This means that sweaters and costumes will keep them colder, not warmer.
Clothing does not make things warmer, it only prevents heat transfer. Humans become warmer with clothing because it traps the heat from their bodies; reptiles become colder because it ...
11
You should take this animal to a vet right away. Repairing the shell will require surgical skills to clean the wound and create a suitable patch. Otherwise the turtle will likely die of infection (if it survives the shock and possible internal injuries).
10
This animal really MUST see a vet to assess the damage (if the tissue leaking out is vital organs or just muscle tissue).
Try calling some if the voicemails of local vets. In my area vets put ways to contact an emergency vet in their voicemails for things that happen when they are closed.
If you cannot find a vet today, gently rinse the area with clean (...
9
The thing is, they lived together for 8 years in a smaller tank, so that does mean that they can live together. Ideally, you would mix turtles of similar size, as that reduces some risk, but from your description I don't think there's much in the way of aggression going on here.
What I do think is happening, and the larger tank is the key to having me think ...
9
There are a few ways to reduce the frequency of water changes for your turtle. Just keep in mind there is no running away from water changes.
Have an efficient biological filter:
This very obvious way is probably the most important. I'm not particularly sure about the filter you have, but essentially in turtle tanks you want to cycle the water at least ...
8
After spending some hours researching, I couldn't find any list of turtle safe materials.
The only material I could think about was wood: if it´s too soft, perhaps you turtle could begin to bite it and remove small chips, and could cause some problems. If the wood is chemically treated, the problems with chemicals could be more intense. And if it´s not ...
8
Simple Answer
Turtles are an aquatic, or semi-aquatic, species, while tortoises reside only on land.
Image sources: 1, 2, 3.
In-Depth Answer
Summary
Technically, tortoises are a kind of turtle. Turtles reside in the order of testudines, while tortoises reside in their order of testudinidae. To make it even more confusing, the word terrapin is often used ...
8
Get her to a vet. You are asking strangers on the Internet for medical advice here, but you should actually ask a veterinarian. They have the knowledge and equipment to diagnose and hopefully help her.
If you got hit by a car, would you ask the Internet to treat you?
7
Maggots are the larvae of a fly, generally the maggots we deal with are housefly maggots. Though houseflies are considered pests, most of the 250,000+ fly species are not pests but rather innocuous or even helpful. Even more, maggots play a very important role in the ecosystem as decomposers of dead matter (mostly they absorb nutrients from dead or rotten ...
7
It looks like a prolapse of some sort. It could be penile, cloacal, or intestinal. Do you know for sure he is a male? Females can also have cloacal prolapse as well as intestinal. If the tissue is not going back in when left alone, you need a qualified vet that treats reptiles.
The tip of the prolapsed tissue is grey, which is not a good sign as it ...
6
A few days of fasting for a healthy turtle should be no problem. You should still place more food than normal, you're turtle doesn't really have to fast. I'd suggest a bigger variety to what your feeding your turtle though. Red ear sliders are initially carnivorous turtles but they eventually turn mostly herbivorous. Even if you turtle is still young it ...
6
One thing to consider first before having an outline of a turtle's enclosure is its natural habitat. Some turtles, like softshell turtles, have evolved to be burrowers and should be supplied with a fine substrate that encourages their natural behaviour. Others may live in muddy environments, and make use of that, but do not need it to thrive (like red ear ...
6
Frozen vegetables should be okay once thawed. There is a slight problem that they lose some of their nutritional value when cooked. Part of the packaging process of frozen vegetables includes blanching them in order to kill off bacteria (blanching is to put some food in a pot of water and bring it up to a boil), so even if you don't cook the vegetables ...
6
Red ear sliders usually lay between 2-4 clutches of eggs, since your turtle laid two clutches, and you can still feel eggs, it is very probable it has more to lay, a simple x-ray will reveal whether it still has some eggs to lay. Sometimes turtles stop digging and do not lay their eggs because they feel something is wrong with the current nesting site, they ...
6
There really is no definite answer to your question. The two species can be maintained simultaneously but a variety of factors will determine that:
The personality of your cat or turtles.
Yes, even turtles have personalities. Some are shy, some enjoy bullying cats, some don't seem to mind cats whatsoever. As for cats, some may be inclined to attack the ...
6
I'd be more inclined to think they're probably yellow belly sliders which are the same as far as care and size go, but they don't develop the red marks on the side of their head.
I would stick with turtle food and you can give snacks like the veggies you have in there or crickets, but the turtle food will be much better as far as nutrition is concerned.
I ...
6
To clean aquarium glass you can use:
A kitchen scrub made of plastic, the ones made for cleaning pots and pans.
A paint scraper, you can get this in your local hardware store, be sure you do not harm the silicone in your tank if you use this.
Do not use any types of chemicals when you clean the glass in your tank if you have any animals or plants in the ...
5
It sounds like the turtle has become addicted to the prawns. The prawns are essentially candy for the turtle, which is why I had suggested them as treats and not a staple.
Really the only solution now is to treat the turtle like a child and refuse to give him any prawns until he eats his vegetables. He might go a day or two without eating before giving in ...
5
Get a razor-blade scraper from a hardware store if you don't want to remove everything from the tank. You can lower the water level to catch what you scrape off, or use a in-tank siphon cleaner, but this is the easiest way to clean a glass surface without having to drain and do a ton of work cleaning up chemicals. Otherwise, I fully agree with the vinegar ...
5
It will be difficult but not impossible to find a turtle which fits your needs.
There are some main factors you need to focus on: temperature and water quality. The temperature will be important for your turtle, the water quality for your fish.
You need to find the kind of turtle, which will survive in the temperature region you live in. If you decide to ...
4
River turtles, in the family Emydidae, are omnivorous, meaning they eat both meat and plant materials. There is nothing wrong with giving your turtle carrots as they are similar to what river turtles would normally eat in the wild:
Generally, most species of river turtle have an omnivorous diet that is primarily made up of aquatic plants, grasses and ...
4
So, turtles have eggs in their bodies that go through stages and cycles. While the eggs are in the body is when the male fertilizes those eggs BUT a male is not a necessary factor for the eggs to be dropped. She may have had unfertilized eggs drop. Also, if she has been with a male before, just like some fish she can hold in male sperm and later lay ...
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