Urgent Care :: Help!!! little tiny baby RES! please read!!!

[the_littlest_weasley]

I work at a pet store and people are always leaving aniamls infront of my store. in fact that's how i got my two RES, who are doing fine.
Tonight, just as i was locking up i found that someone has yet again left two baby, and i mean really little baby, RES. the larger one can't be more that an inch. now i can't keep them, crush and squit would probably eat them. so i'm going to be taking them to my exotic vet (where i take my bunnies) in the morning. HOWEVER the smaller one is very lathargic(sp?) and not eating (i brought home some baby RES food and broke it into smaller pieces for them). i'm really worries about him/her. Now, the nasty sludgy water they were in (very little of it i might add) was very very cold. (i put them in a larger tank i had on hand with clean warm water) so maybe he was on the verg of hibernation or something.
but what i want to know is how can i get him to eat? i really really worried.

Thanks in advanced.

[xsavingsaturdayx]

Keep him warm (i suppose you have a water heater so you can keep the water at a perfect temperature) and try offering food,you can try dipping the pellets into something like tuna and then offer it.Just to tell you,he might not eat right away.Hatchlings need time to adjust to a new enviroment,mine went a week without eating when i first got them.A trip to the vet is probably the best thing you can do right now,good luck!

[industrial_girl_2000]

Turn up the water temp to about 82 degrees & see how he does then. Turtles can't digest food when the water is too cold which is why they also don't eat. It may take about a day for him to start eating normally again, so just be patient for a day (especially if the baby was out in the cold for who-knows-how-long...he may need a day to adjust to warmer water again).

Depending on how these turtles were cared for before you got them, they may already be sick. Don't put them in with your turtles at home.

[the_littlest_weasley]

thanks for the advice. it really helped!

they made it through the night. but i still haven't seen either of them eat, however the smaller one is swimming around happily like a normal turtle should.
i wasn't planning on putting them in with crush and squirt. the two of them have taken down goldfish bigger than these guys. they'll be going to my vet when i get home from school today, around 11:30am. i just hope they'll make it that long.

last night i put their tank next to crush and squirt's set up. it's so funny, they kept trying to see what was in it and who i was giving all this attention to. i had to give them some extra shrimp because they just kept looking at me so pitifully. i swear, i don't see how people can say that turtles have no personality. lol

[marisa]

Try some live food like pieces of an earthworm and see if they'll eat that.

[the_littlest_weasley]

The larger one was eating before I left this morning. however the small one has still yet to eat. They were both very active and came up to the side of the tank when I came over to it. I put some freeze dried bloodworms in to see if that might entice them to eat, but they were more interested in getting attention for me. so i think they are quite heathy. i'll bet they didn't get very much human interaction, if they even got any. i'm continplating keeping them cause their just sooo cute, and i'm afraid that who ever gets them wont take good care of them. But it just wouldn't be fair to them, because i don' t have the room. maybe i can convince my sister to keep them. she did say she wanted turtles.

thanks again for all your advice!

edit:
here's a picture of the larger one. you can see the smaller one in the water next to him.

[DaddySkittles]

Oh my god. That's the tiniest little RES I have ever seen in my entire life.

[the_littlest_weasley]

well, my parents said we can keep them! yay!!!! my sister's going to keep them in her room (since i have no room with all the animals i have in mine) the only thing is that i need to keep up on the cleaning of the water. which wont be that hard for now. and when they're big enough we're gonna see if they'll get along with crush and squirt. we're planning on making a pond in the backyard for them.
i went to a store that sells a lot of reptile stuff and found some RES hatchling food. it's a little smaller than the pellets for my betta fish. he larger one has been going to town on them, but i think the smaller one is having some problems seeing them. he doesn't seem to be able to judge where the pellet is from under water. he's gone for the food a few times but has yet to get any, and then he gives up. i'm going to be keeping a very close eye on him and if he doens't eat soon he'll be going to the vet to make sure he's alright.


thanks again for all the advice! you guys are always so helpful!!!

[Rickiew04]

So when and they are that small, they need to eat a different food?

[the_littlest_weasley]

i don't think the food is that different from the regular food, just smaller so its easier for them to eat since their mouths are so small. although, it might be formulated a little different to give them the extra nutrients and stuff that growing babies need.

[Tilted]

Wow, they are really REALLY tiny. I would take the one that is eating out of the tank and try to feed the other one. When I first got my babies the one would not eat unless I took the bigger on out of the tank and left the room for about 20 mins.