Terrapin (YBS) not eating

Jimkel

inode wrote:

the setup is decent, the water temp is 25 degrees, got a good filter, uvb light etc.

i feed them fish r fun turtle and small retile food. the other one loves it. but the anorexic one hasnt bothered to even look at the food since day one or another brand ive thrown at him. he has nibbled on aquarium plants though.

he just lazes around on the rocks all day or under water.

1 Yellow bellied sliders are not Terrapins, they are Turtles.

2 The water temp should be between 35 and 40 degrees. They are cold blooded and cannot digest properly if too cold, they need heat. This must be the problem. RAISE THE TEMP WITH YOUR HEATER

3 make sure there is a platform they can get to in order to bask 6 inches from the UV light

4 take the plants out of the water. Unless you really know what your doing they could be poiseness to the turtles if eatin. Dandylions are safe to eat do not feed iceberg lettuce because there are no nutrients.

5 try live food eg live worms, frozen mice, red mosquito larvea or feeder fish
Not goldfish, only guppies or minnows.

6 try feed in the same place and the same time everyday. so they get used to it

7 if your feeling brave try handfeeding the dried stick food, this can be done safely by making them pop there heads out of the water to reach for the food, that way you'll keep your fingertips intact! and you can keep an eye on what the skinny one is eating

8 Never handle your turtles unless necessary. They do not appreciate beaing handled and the stress of it could lead to weightloss and loss of appatite

9 They eat meat, but as they age they may become completly vegatarian


goodluck with the skinny one, I would recommend bringing him to a reputable petshop which has there own resident reptile expert. Whackers in the city center is a good one, or Kinselly pet shop on the malahide road, And of course the Reptile havan just off the quays near Dublin city counsell HQ. These are better then vets for advice as most Irish vets have no experience with Reptiles and Amphibians.

Jimkel

inode wrote:

so lets say i have a 40watt about 20inches above the basking rock is that ok?

No man thats not ok, you dont need a heat lamp. Drys them out too fast. the water warms them, you should have an underwater heater. The light from the Flourescent reptilel light is perfect, needs to be changed every 6 months.

Plenty of Warm (35 - 40 degrees C) water to swim in and a basking area under a specific Reptile UV light (can be purchased in most pet stores) at the right distance so the turtle can be 6 inches from the light source.

Its imperative that you raise the temp to at least 35 degrees as its not good for your turtles.

If you are referencing a book on terrapins you are referencing the wrong animal. This is a turtle, you should buy book on sliders.

There is an excellent book in Whackers in the city center on pet turtles, I cant remember what its called but its the only one there.

your habitat for the turtle should consist of mostly deep water with a decent sized dry basking area easily accesable from the water.

Good luck man I must repeat YELLOW BELLIED SLIDERS ARE NOT TERRAPINS AND SHOULD NOT BE TREATED AS SUCH, they come from a warmer climate then terrappins.

I looked at the pics you posted and I can clearly see there is not near enough water, they like deep water because it holds heat, they need it to exercise and therefore build up an appitite. You really should consider getting

2 foot by 1 foot AQUARIUM fill mostly with water about 3 quaters.

A Turtle dock (basking fixture) as large as you can afford as they will grow

An underwater heater (essentiall)

A powerhead filter/ pump for water quality

A specific reptile Flourescent light bulb with a starter.

A book on turtles

These are the basic requirements of a Turtle.

tallus

Jimkel, I'm wondering where you got those 35-40C temperature settings from.
23-29C is the recommended water temp for aquatic turtles according to the tortoise trust. I'd lend plenty of weight to anything I find on their site, they have been keeping tortoises and turtles for a long time.
http://www.tortoisetrust.org/articles/aquatic.html

FranknFurter

tallus wrote:

Jimkel, I'm wondering where you got those 35-40C temperature settings from.
23-29C is the recommended water temp for aquatic turtles according to the tortoise trust. I'd lend plenty of weight to anything I find on their site, they have been keeping tortoises and turtles for a long time.
http://www.tortoisetrust.org/articles/aquatic.html

Was wondering that myself, 35-40C seems a bit *too* much imho. Although maybe in the early years and depending on tank size 30C would be good.

Just my opinion but I would err on the side of caution and not go over 30.

Also, if you are feeding any plant matter, make sure it has not been exposed to fetilisers or plant food or weed killer, and always wash it thouroughly.
I remember a woman telling me she used to scrape some cuttlefish bone (sold in most pet shops for birds to gnaw on), onto some wet dandelion leaf peices as a calcium supplement. Not sure how well it would work, but it sounds like it helped and if not no harm done.

Also, do remember, their basking platform needs to be as big as possible (at least twice the size of the turtle), and should be smooth not just a rock pointing out of the water, imagine if you had to cling on to the side of a tree to get sun, or balance on a pointy or spikey rock, wouldnt be all that comfy now would it
Some people seem to think that just because a turtle has a shell, it dosent mind uncomfortable basking areas, they forget about shell scraping and legs.

Off topic, but I have to say, I really wish petshop owners would tell buyers about these particular turtles or better still, not sell them. They are (again) suddenly in every damned pet shop again with absolutely no attention paid to their welfare. Being sold with the old clear plastic bucket style "aquarium" along with the "plastic island and palm tree" in the middle.
Its like deja-vu back to the 80's when the same thing happened with them.

B

(Inode, you do know that the bulb you need is NOT just a regular light bulb right? Its a specialist bulb bought in a petshop, just making sure as this is VERY important if your little guy has a soft shell right now).

tallus

I'd agree with frankenfurter and stay on the lower side of 30C. I dont know of any reptile that needs more than 30C to thermoregulate/digest food, but i'm open to correction there.
I use a UVB lamp with my tortoises. UVB is the spectrum of light needed by Chelonians for Vitamin D3 conversion to calcium. It's a combined heat/uvb lamp and works quite well so far.
After keeping and breeding several species of reptiles over the years I have never had a species that needed more than 30C to function.
I use cuttlefish bone on my tortoises as a calcium source as well as Limestone flour which is very high in calcium and can easily be absorbed into the system by the tortoises.

inode

thanks all. just noticed this topic is still going. lol

the YBS is doing much better now. just to clarify i have all of the requirements they need. as i said before the pic of posted is of a seperate tank i put them in to feed

tallus

Good idea on the feeding inode, they can really mess the water up with their feeding the way they rip everything to shreds with those front legs/claws.

Jimkel

Lads I was reading straight out of a book on yellow bellied sliders, It is very high tough, I think 30 degrees myself would be perfect for them in a small tank. See there mostly aquatic reptiles, and as we know water holds heat at the bottom, this book meant these instructions for a large tank/pond because as we know water holds heat at the bottom, so if you heat the deep water to 35 degrees it will keep the surrounding the water around 30 degrees, cooler as it nears the surface.. But in a small or average size tank, that would not be the case. I agree 30 degrees

tallus

Heat also rises

Our man in Havana

Have to say they do not need heated water - YBS, RES & terrepins can live outside in Ireland & the UK all of my 6 live in a paddling pool & they are fine the only thing that they can not do is hatch eggs as the ground temps are too cool - they are all over the uk now as people dump them when they get too big.

Shane190

I have 7 terrepins in total

How big are they now? are they all in the one tank? if they are the tank must be massive. what size is it?

magnumlady

Bond-007 wrote:

Have to say they do not need heated water - YBS, RES & terrepins can live outside in Ireland & the UK all of my 6 live in a paddling pool & they are fine the only thing that they can not do is hatch eggs as the ground temps are too cool - they are all over the uk now as people dump them when they get too big.

Is that right? Most people are saying they do need heated water.
We are thinking of getting one and have been told to get a big tank, filter, heater and basking lamp, floating dock.

Shane190

I never heard of them being kept in a paddling pool. I have a 3ft tank for my 3. I dont have a basking lamp and mine are fine but everything else magnumlady mentioned are necessary.

Bond-007 do you have any pictures of your setup?

Rancid

I have a rescue YBS, age about 8 or 9, in an indoor 120 gallon preformed pond.
Water temp varies between 22 and 26 C and she has uv and heat lights for 12 hours a day. She has a filter and 2 heaters.

I'm hoping to have her in the garden in the summer this year, but I assumed I'd need the heaters running all the time.

Shane190

What is a YBS?

magnumlady

Shane190 wrote:

What is a YBS?

Yellow bellied slider