All Turtles Message Board

ANDY61 · Guest Joined: 15 Feb 2007 Posts: 1

I RECENTLY BOUGHT 4 TURTLES AND HAVE LOST 2, NOW THE 3RD ONE IS GOING THE SAME WAY. IVE NEVER HAD TURTLES BEFORE. HE CANT DIVE DOWN FOR FOOD AND WHEN I TAKE HIM OUT IT LOOKS LIKE HE'S GASPING FOR AIR IVE ALSO TAKING HIM TO THE VET WHO TOLD ME TO CHANGE THE DIET TO LIVE FOOD INSTEAD OF PELLETS. ALSO HAPPY WITH SETUP,DONT KNOW WHERE IM GOING WRONG. THANK YOU

turtle_grl77 · Level 4 Joined: 18 Nov 2005 Posts: 985 Location: Florida

Sounds like you need a second opinion and fast.

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

Tucker wouldn't dive down to eat food when he was really little. What I ended up doing was simply making sure that I put his broken up pellets on his basking platform, just out of the water. That way he was able to get to them pretty easy and eat them while being supported on his platform. I worried about him for a while still because he didn't seem to eat that much and he would still sometimes drop his food in the water, and if it sunk to the bottom he wouldn't go for it.

How deep is the water in your tank? What things do your guys have to climb on and up to get to the surface (plants, rocks, etc)? Your babies shouldn't have water too too deep. What kind of turtles do you have?

Fred_and_George

[quote="ANDY61"] HE CANT DIVE DOWN FOR FOOD AND WHEN I TAKE HIM OUT IT LOOKS LIKE HE'S GASPING FOR AIR /quote]

your turtle has a respiratory infection. if your vet did not see this, then they are probably not a qualified herp vet or are a bad one. you need to increase water temps and basking light temps, i bought a red heat lamp (black works too) to leave on at night so they can sleep on their basking spot. you also need to find a herp vet in your area (herps are reptiles...) there is a link on this board that will take you to a page that will list all the herp vets near you.
keep offering food, and keep him warm! you can also try soaking him in pedialyte to get some nutrients into him. they love tuna, try offerint some of that to him.
_________________
I love my turtles! Smile

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

http://www.austinsturtlepage.com/Care/medinjuries.htm - has some good information on respiratory infections.

dixieee · Posted: Fri Feb 16, 2007 3:33 pm Post subject:

all the symptoms u're talkin about are signs of Pneumonia (RI) which is an disease that infects baby turtles easily mainly due to low temps and lack of vitamins for the absence of UV rays. The vet that saw ur turtle seems to be ignorant so take him to another one ASAP cz he needs meds. RI can be fatal if not treated properly at an early stage Exclamation

_________________
Wed 10/27/2004 is the worst day..i lost my best friend Leo

so now i have a female RES, Green, and a cute stupid male YBS, Mint

5/4/2006 RIP Lemon, u were my first rescue and i'm so proud of u. will never 4get u