All Turtles Message Board

torifritz30 · Level 2 Joined: 26 Jun 2007 Posts: 90

eats the rocks! and i know that is really bad for them but my mom wont take me too get new rocks..bigger rocks.. he likes pelets too but still my mom wont buy then for her!! Exclamation

i am starting to get angry at her i keep tellin her that my turtle might die because she eats rocks! what should i do??

loving turtles always,
Tori

Jdude101 · Level 3 Joined: 03 Sep 2007 Posts: 191 Location: Georgia

you could feed her more ellets, or just takke out the rocks for now

Fred_and_George · Posted: Wed Oct 10, 2007 7:25 pm Post subject:

first of all, i don't think your mom appreciates you blaming her, turtle things can be expensive. it would be a better idea to do some research and show her the things that you learn so she can have a better understanding of what turtles need. they DO need more than just fish, and turtles should not eat rocks. i would take the rocks that you have out of the tank, because you are right, it could die. i would also suggest giving your turtle things other than fish. you can give them lettuce (NOT ICEBERG!!! you want to use really dark green, really leafy plants, like romaine lettuce, or even spinach) you can also give your turtle things like tuna (but not very often). it would also be a good idea for you to maybe save your money to buy pellets yourself, your mom will appreciate your dedication to your pet, and see how responsible you are in taking care of it. Also, Christmas is coming up, you could ask for turtle stuff for that, i always do. i find that i get all kinds of really cool stuff and my parents dont mind buying it, because it is christmas presents! but yeah, so that is my advice to you, but most importantly TAKE THE ROCKS OUT OF YOUR TANK AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!!!!!!
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I love my turtles! Smile

torifritz30 · Level 2 Joined: 26 Jun 2007 Posts: 90

where shold i put the food? yes i will take the rocks out today!

tori

garothmaan · Level 1 Joined: 06 Nov 2007 Posts: 10

Hi I am garothmaan,

I have res, and I feed them pellets, but i want to feed them vegeies too, whats the best in veg diet?

ryanandsuzyro · Level 3 Joined: 19 Nov 2006 Posts: 207

The easiest? Romaine lettuce. Float a big piece in the tank. They will go for it eventually. Keep in mind that young turtles require more protein than greens.

A list of good plants for your turtle can be found here.
http://forum.petturtle.com/viewtopic.php?t=1676

The following are toxic!
http://forum.petturtle.com/viewtopic.php?t=1675

Fish should not be the primary food. From a budget standpoint, regular feeder fish cost quite a bit more than pellets. Put together 15 dollars (or less), find the 10.59 oz can or such and you won't need to buy pellets again for months, if not longer. A mix of pellets and some form of greens, the occasional fish and perhaps a treat here and there (cooked and drained plain ground beef, chicken, worms) will be adequate.

Bubonic · Level 2 Joined: 06 Mar 2008 Posts: 81

This pet shop women is cutting me a great deal on a 40 gallon tank, with heat lamp, uvb lamp, platform, filter... But she keeps insisting I need to rocks on the bottom.
I mentioned to her all this talk on the net I've heard about the hazards, and she says these are isolated cases.
Says she's always kept her turtles with pebbles, and never once have they eaten them.
So is is just a question of them resorting to rocks if their diet isn't satisfying them?

ryanandsuzyro · Level 3 Joined: 19 Nov 2006 Posts: 207

Some people indeed never have problems that others warn about. There are many keepers who keep multiple turtles together with zero problems; a quick search of any turtle community site or help page will contain many accounts of turtles getting aggressive/violent towards each other. I have a friend who holds several strange myths about turtle keeping, but by the same token, his turtle is a healthy six-year old slider nonetheless. The pet store owner may totally have kept turtles for years with small pebbles/aquarium gravel and have had no issues with turtles eating them, and in her experience has only heard of a few cases.

These are all cases of, it may NOT happen, but in many cases it HAS and comes up routinely on this board, other boards and elsewhere. It's up to you to look at the various pieces of evidence/stories and up to you to decide if you want to risk an action that MAY injure your pet.

I do not think there is evidence that a turtle NEEDS rocks. It certainly does not *need* rocks small enough to eat and cause potential problems. But it won't hurt it to put in large rocks that are much too big for it to eat. My Tucker has half the bottom of his tank covered in river rocks 3-4 times bigger than his head, and he loves to push 'em around. Much too big for him to eat!=)

Bubonic · Level 2 Joined: 06 Mar 2008 Posts: 81

Thing is, she gives me this story about how the smaller rocks suck up the bacteria, keep the smell at bay, and how the big rocks won't do this, they will just have the scum floating around them.

I don't know if she is lying to me just to sell her stupid rocks, but she's cut back the price of the tank 50 bucks, cut back 25 from the filter, and a bit off of everything since I'm buying in bulk.

STRAYKINGFISHER · Posted: Thu Mar 06, 2008 11:57 am Post subject:

You should read this web page before you decide for yourself:

http://www.tortoise.org/general/impact.html

Bubonic · Level 2 Joined: 06 Mar 2008 Posts: 81

I wish this lady didn't come off so strongly about how there is nothing to worry about, and even when I tried to meet her halfway and suggested I get the big substrate (flat looking smooth rocks), she said they were useless.

STRAYKINGFISHER · Posted: Fri Mar 07, 2008 12:42 am Post subject:

I'll bet she doesn't even have a turtle Laughing

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Bubonic · Level 2 Joined: 06 Mar 2008 Posts: 81

Well they had a 3 year old slider at the shop which had blue/green gravel at the bottom.
She claimed that she'd had some turtles all her life.
But even though they did go out of their way to cut me a deal, I wouldn't put it past pet shop owners to say what they need to in order to get me to buy a bit more.

So soon as I buy the gravel, I'm more or less obligated to get one of those cleaning pumps.

The SPCA guy told me never to listen to pet shop owners anyways.

ryanandsuzyro · Level 3 Joined: 19 Nov 2006 Posts: 207

Bubonic · Level 2 Joined: 06 Mar 2008 Posts: 81

I can see where he's coming from, like others have mentioned, you can go to a pet store, buy very difficult pets, and they're just interested in their bottom line.
Not to mention a lot of them work with puppy mills.

babylucifer · Level 2 Joined: 06 Sep 2008 Posts: 62

Get in the habit of doing lots of water changes, it's just healthy. Nobody needs little rocks. When I put the babies outside on the driveway or the gravel, they give me dirty looks like "This is too rough, I want my nice smooth tank!" A big rock, though, that's entertainment. They'll push it around, wedge their heads under it to sleep underwater (they do that to deliberately scare you, just kidding, but it seems that way the first time you see them do it).