Hi,
Friday, the 7th, I received my new turtle and was so thrilled to meet him/her. I'm new to turtle keeping but have been researching for months on how to care and where to get them. One thing all my research did not cover was new baby turtle behavior.
I'm worried. I can understand the baby may be extremely frightened in the new environment, but still, the lack of activity is unsettling. I have him/her in a 5.5 gallon tank, for the moment, I do have a 29 gallon but wanted to start out with the smaller first. Temp is 77F, have UVB and basking lights. Basking temp is 91F. I have an external canister filter and the water is clear and moving. It's treated with conditioner. The turtle is eating, thankfully. Been feeding pellets and bloodworms. Also included a Repti stick.
Friday morning my turtle was active when I opened the shipping package and I was very grateful. But it was a very long night for the both of us. I've tried to keep my distance and only interact with the turtle during feeding time as he/she really does seem skittish. Saturday was a long day too of watching and worrying. Sunday he/she perked up a bit, ate much better and seemed more at ease. But today, not so much. My turtle has been on the basking dock most the day but head has been down a lot and not looking around as much.
Here's a couple pictured from today.
Please let me know how I can help my turtle.