All Turtles Message Board

cyndl412 · Guest Joined: 12 Dec 2007 Posts: 2

I recently bought a trutle as a pet for my children. Before anyone gets stressed, my chilodren are absolutely wonderful with animals. We have various lizards and other pets and my kids know the rules of animal handling and follow them. They are also never left unattended with the smaller pets.
That being said, I want to explain my setup and I have a few questions. We have a 20g tank with fish gravel in the bottom. I have been reading and I think in the next month or so I will change that over to larger river rock for safety purposes. I have large rocks on one side of the tank that go up gradually to a dry spot under a basking light. I also have a strip light across the top with a repitsun UVB bulb in it. I have a submersable filter in the tank that is rated for upto 20g. The water level is about almost to the halfway mark of the tank. I also have fake viney plants that hang down so she can hide and rest. There are feeder rosies living with her right now, but she is not interested in them yet. She has been fed (by previous owner) a mix of hatchling pellets and greens. So far she has not eaten either for me. We have had her for 5 days now. 2 days ago I fed the fish to keep them alive longer (although they have been eating the pellets that she is not eating) and she came rushing over and ate it all up. Is that ok? will it hurt her? is it ok for now? She is really small, about 2.5 inches wide. Today I floated a piece of collard greens in there, but no luck so far. Last night as she was eating fish food I dropped some pellets right in the middle and she "accidentally" ate them. So as long as the fish food is not harmful, I'll keep doing that and dropping the pellets in the middle.
My son named her Shelly. She is really sweet. She already comes over to meet me when I approach the tank. She was also playing with my youngest son, going up and down in the water as my son would put his head below and above the water level (outside the tank obviously, LOL!). It was the cutest thing. She seems very social so far.

So that is my story. If you have any advice please let me know. And if you can answer my feeding questions that would be great!

Thanks!

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

Based on personal experience and lots of stories on this board, turtles seem to need a little bit of time to get comfortable after any major move. If she continues to not eat for weeks, you might need to worry, but right now she's probably fine.

My turtle also eats the fish food, though I usually try to distract him with his own food so the fishies can get some. I mean, sure, they're in the tank to get eaten but I don't want to starve them til then. Wink

Try not to get her too dependent on it though. HOpefully over the next week she'll get comfortable and hungry and go nuts on the regular stuff.

STRAYKINGFISHER · Posted: Wed Dec 12, 2007 4:48 pm Post subject:

My turtles ate the fish food as well, it must be the smell of the fish flakes, anyway, try the "soaking in tuna water" technique, it usually works, just for a couple of weeks until it realizes what the shape of her food should be, I can't guarantee that she'll stop eating the fish food altogether, but at least she will eat her food with the nutrients she needs. Very Happy

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Squirtle999 · Posted: Thu Dec 13, 2007 9:44 am Post subject:

Hi!! welcome to the forum.

skslover · Posted: Thu Dec 20, 2007 10:59 pm Post subject:

Hi if u need any help ask me ^_^
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I miss my turtles spikeI and Buffy.I am glad to have Killer SpikeII and Sarih and Tiger.Luv the barn cats Pirrate Bindi Tigger Comet Poppy Onyx Snowball and Boo. Luv the dogs Baker Nike AlleyMay Bruno Boox2, and Shyshy. Luv the horses but mainly Shadow.