Hi! Introduce yourselves here. :: Concern! sleepy turtle

[Yajaira Cavazos]

Hi guys Im new to this forum. I am a proud owner of a RES turtle. Her name is PINA and ive had her since she was a baby. She is now a year and a couple of months old. Her shell measures 5" now. We refer to her as a she, but PINA is a male. We have her tank on the floor, and she has a ramp that lets her walk in and out of her tank when ever she pleases. She usually spends most of her morning walking aroung the apartment then she goes back into her tank in the afternoon. She is very active. we feed her every other day. Her diet consist of pallets, veggies, fruit and i also give her vitamins. She loves to eat!!...
Today she did her usual routine. she spend the whole morning outside then walked in at about 12:00, I fed her at 2:30 and of course she ate alot. afterwards she fell asleep. this is a new behavior of hers. i was concerned so i kept waking her up but she kept closing her eyes again!!!! her tank is equiped with all essentials; heater, light, uv, filter and i use only distiled or purified bottled water for her tank. Ive read so much on Res turtles but i cant seem to find anything on this behavior. we just moved (about 3 months ago) from san diego to san fracisco and its quite a weather change.
can it be that??? can someone please advise???

[missibsu]

Can we get some other information? Do you have a UVB light? How much of each of those food items are you feeding her? Is she sleeping in the water, or out? What is the water temp, and the basking temp?

[Yajaira Cavazos]

thanks for the response. yes she has a uvb light. her water temp is 80 and its always been 80. the basking is about 90. I feed her every other day. portion size of her head. she sleeps in water all the time. but last night i took her out and she slept out of her tank. I kept her warm at about 89-90. today she awoke very active and she is begging for food now. however, she was very active yesterday morning but in the afternoon she was sleepy!!! so i just called a nearby vet and she has her first vet appointment today at 11:30. My concern now is antiboitics..are they safe?

[sonyj]

The water temp at 80 is a little too warm. For older turtles it should be between 72-75, Hatchlings 78 with basking area at least 10 degrees warmer. I know water that is constantly too warm can lead to fast growth which isn't good for turtles. I'm not sure however what else it could cause. 1 inch or so a year is considered healthy growth. More than this could cause problems. As well as the water being too warm, overfeeding /feeding too much protien could cause fast growth as well.


Now on the other hand for a turtle that is ill, you can bump their temp up to around 80-82 to help fight off illness temporarily but you wouldn't want to leave it there on a permanent basis.

Do you have any pics? We'd love to see him and his home. And welcome to the forum...

[marisa]

Welcome. Distilled water isn't necessary for your turtle. And actually the minerals, which your turtle needs, have been taken out of it. Tap water with a dechlorinator if it's been treated with chlorine/chloramines is fine. Do you have pics?

[tini]

*nods* tap water has calcium.

[Yajaira Cavazos]

hi guys thanks for the coments. i took her to the vet. the vet checked her out said that she looked fine! No need for antibiotics. I also took a stool sample and i hope that comes back fine. Ive been watching her all day and she looks fine, very active, begging for food, digging for food.. her usual behavior. i also discribed my tank setting to the vet, and mentioned the bottled water, light, uvb, temp(80water and 90-95 basking) .. and she said everything seemed fine. however i am thinking of lowering her water temp from 80 to 79 or 78. Ive used bottled water since i first got her, I dont trust tap water... i tried using bottled water with minerals once but she kept rubbing her eyes and blinking so i changed it that same day. i also tried tap water and she did the same thing. im thinking of trying spring water..or maybe filtered tap water. Also, guys, has any of you heard of Avians medical insurance for turtles? And i would like to hear if its good insurance? Or is there any other providers out there? The vet bill was not as high as i expected it to be but i will still like to have have coverage. I'd love to share my pictures of PINA with u guys but still havent figured out how to upload them here.

[sonyj]

To upload pics you first use a free webhosting site like photobucket or yahoo pics and then link to it on the photo gallery. There's a post way back in the photo gallery that can explain it a lot better though.

Glad your turtle is doing good.

[shady1616]

I never heard of turtle insurance. That's interesting. But my parents would never get it. Sadly, they don't care for my turtles. They don't even take them to the vet when they are sick so I have to rely on you guys.

[cam722]

I did a search online for it.. and found this site. It's about $12 a month for each turtle. It says at checkout they apply a $6 multiple pet discount.

http://www.petinsurance.com/

Interesting concept

[JessicaTS]

Didn't want to post a new topic so figured it'd fit in here

Here is last night with my Miss Map ( new 2 weeks) and Jo sleeping in the waterland tub
I just couldn't resist taking a photo (or 3)



Jo with Chameleon Eyes

[STRAYKINGFISHER]

Gorgeous little turtles

[lydia_lady_fla]

cute pixs.
as for the turtle of yaja's....hmmmm new place getting older, healthy perhaps just new habits forming? as seasons change so will animal behavior glad you saw a vet though. really would like to see the free roaming set up.