Box Turtle and Tortoise Discussion :: tortoise n red ear sliders gravel eating

A general forum for those with an interest in land-based turtles.

Post Posted: Fri Jul 07, 2006 2:47 am   tortoise n red ear sliders gravel eating

i saw this on tortoise trust web
20) Our turtle seems to be eating rocks on the bottom of her tank! What do we do about this?
[Jody Karlin] Nothing, it is normal behavior for some species to consume gravel ie..Diamondback Terrapins do it religiously. Although the exact reason for this is open to debate, the most prevalent theory is that the gravel aids in the digestive process. Don't worry about blockage, they will "pass the stones", so to speak.


i have heard tt gravels are harmful to RES since they can get intestine problems or sth
how bout tortoise?
isit true tt its ok for tortoise to swallow gravel if they do it accidentally
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Post Posted: Fri Jul 07, 2006 9:20 am   

Seems to me, the best thing to do would be make sure there is no gravel in the tank to begin with. Sure, some turtles will pass it with no problem, but some will get impactions, resulting in major surgery. Who wants to take that chance?

I wouldn't worry about that happening to your tort. If you use soil as part of the substrate, you'll find very small rocks throughout. You can sit and pick them out or you can choose not to worry about it. My box turtles occasionally go picking thru the dirt and eat whatever they find but they'd do that in the wild anyway. I'll take stones out when I notice them but I won't go sifting thru the dirt.
The things that come to those who wait may be the things that were left by those who got there first - Steven Tyler
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jenaero
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Post Posted: Fri Jul 07, 2006 11:32 am   

alrite thnx alot for the information
hehe
quite excited bout it giving my tortoise a new home
it has been living in a 3 feet fish tank , long in height wif newspaper only , cuz my fren doesnt noe wad it needs , which is why he is giving it to me hopin i can give it better treatment under my care :)
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