16
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 ...
11
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 ...
8
Turtles love to snack on all the things you've suggested, fish, crayfish, insects, vegetables.
Meat
Fresh water turtles will happily feed on insects, spiders, fish, crayfish, earthworms and meal worms. A regular live fish as a treat is a good idea. Preferably the type of small (or young) fish that the turtle would naturally encounter. In this case ...
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
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
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 ...
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 ...
5
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 ...
5
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 ...
5
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 ...
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 ...
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
Feeding
A two inch snapping turtle would only be young, as they grow to 8 inches long. They naturally scavenge and even hunt for their food, so it might be a good idea to provide some live food. As they grow they are able to handle larger prey. They are omnivores and require both plant matter and meat to remain healthy. In the order of one third plant ...
4
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 ...
4
In TurtleForum they happen to ask the same question as you did in one of their threads(search near the bottom):
Yes, softshelled turtles are generally extremely aggressive, have very
long necks, and inflict painful wounds. No turtle in the world is
venomous (i.e. they do not have venom glands and an apparatus to
inject a toxic substance like a cobra ...
4
Hit by cars, on any animal, need to be seen ASAP. A pet may look fine at first glance but there is a high chance of internal damage that may only be apparent when it's too late.
Your veterinarian will want to do radiographs to check for any broken/displaced bones or ruptured organs.
Depending on the outcome of the exam, pain medicine or anti-...
4
Turtles can be left alone for a few days, although there is some risk, so it is best to have a friend and neighbor check on your turtle in your home each day if possible. You could also move the tank to a neighbor's house, but the amount of effort required plus the stress on the turtles by moving them twice in a short time makes this an unappealing option.
...
4
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 ...
4
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 ...
3
From the information I could find, there is no definitive way of determining the age of an adult yellow-bellied slider, unless you've owned it from a baby. Counting rings on the shell is not significant in determining years of age.
For young females the yellow mark behind the eye is more striking, as is the underside of the belly. These feature tend to fade ...
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