General Care Discussion :: My turtle is following me?

[Maramultiversal]

Just this morning she seems to have taken some sort of fascination with me! She's never paid me much mind before. When I moves from side to side in front of her tank she follows me, always keeping eye contact. And I know the usual reason to this sort of thing is "it's begging for food". Well she doesn't want it! I drop pieces in the tank and she couldn't care less! She absolutely HATES to be held, I don't know what she wants with me but it's freaking me out!! She changes her behavior so often, I don't know what to do about anything she does T.T

[steve]

When you drop it in, does she see where the food goes? They're notorious for overshooting where their food it.

[Maramultiversal]

I know, she's such a derp about missing her food. But no, she knows where it is, even sniffs it. Then just disregards it and keeps following me... I gave her some broccoli and a dandelion leaf today. Doesn't want those either. Thought with the broccoli I'm not really surprised o-O I'm fairly certain she doesn't like broccoli...I give it to her anyway because it's really the only veggie we have in the house. And with winter basically here dandelions are in short supply...

[steve]

Broccoli is not that good for them, so don't use it regularly. What about other greens? It sounds like she wants treats over veggies

[Maramultiversal]

She's never been a fan of veggies. She's not even a year old yet though...I don't have treats though, she's never had treats. Just turtle sticks and leaves.

[steve]

Does she act like that all day?

[Maramultiversal]

she doesn't seem to be doing it today.

[steve]

Hopefully she's back to normal

[Maramultiversal]

I think she's unhappy cuz I need to add more water to her tank. It evaporates so fast and money is pretty tight :/ I use distilled water.

[ljapa]

No need for distilled water.

You can use tap water, and it may even be better because of the dissolved minerals that are missing in distilled water.

Make sure you drain out some tank water before filling everything back up, so you pull some of the waste that builds up in the water. If you don't have carbon in Your filter, you may want to get some of the aquarium water treatment drops.

[Maramultiversal]

I'm not sure what's in my filter o-O A lot of little black rocks...And I recently looked up using tap water and everything I read said that if I used tap water I'd have to buy water conditioner so I figured it wouldn't be any cheaper...

[ljapa]

The black rocks are probably charcoal.

The "danger" of tap water is the chlorine or chloramine that is added to kill bacteria. For a fish, that breathes water, it can kill them. For a turtle that swallows water, like we do, it is less of a danger.

There is still the chance that the chlorine can harm the beneficial bacteria in the tank, which is why you may consider water conditioner. One bottle of conditioner will cost more than 1 bottle of water, but that one bottle can treat hundreds of bottles of water.

Seachem Prime, one of the conditioners, just needs 1ml to treat 10 gallons (almost 38 liters). That will be much cheaper than buying water.

If your water is treated with chlorine and not chloramine, you just need to let it sit in a bucket for a few days, and the chlorine will evaporate. Chlorine instead of chloramine is much less common today, though.

[Lihu]

Hello, I was trying to figure out why my turtle was following me around recently too and I stumbled upon this website and your post. I think the answer to your question is that your turtle might be growing closer to you and recognizes you. When I take my turtle out of his tank, he starts crawling after me wherever I go as well and I think it's all thanks to us growing closer and spending more time together. Their behaviour really reflects what they want to communicate and I think this is why turtles are such cute and fascinating creatures. Hope you and your turtle are doing well. I think she loves you. I made this account today because of your post so thank you. I really hope that my answer will be seen by others who are curious about their turtle as well. :3

[glitterberry]

yep mine follows me too and ears out my fingers. I know the op is old but that sounds like a food preference issue. my RES preferred meat and protein until she became an adult and now it's red leaf lettuce and berries as treats.