Other Turtle Discussion :: TURTLE BEHAVIOR

[SKIPPY AND SNAPPY]

My two RES Skippy and Snappy are both 14 months old. Snappy is the bigger of the two, and is also much darker. I know that it is still way to early for me to be able to tell what sex they are, but they have been doing some pretty strange things for the past few months that make me think that they are performing some form of pre-mating ritual.
Snappy faces Skippy, so that they are face to face, almost nose touching. Stretches both of his arms out so that his palms face Skippy, and shakes his hands very fast in a rythmic fashion. Snappy will continue to do this for around a minute, unless he see's me watching. Where at that point they go off in their seperate directions.
Does anybody know what they are doing?

[jenaero]

That behaviour is associated with both mating and territorial disputes. How big are they and how big is the tank they're in?

[SKIPPY AND SNAPPY]

Snappy is 6" and Skippy is 4 1/2". They are in a 60 gallon tank that is filled most of the way.

[jenaero]

They might be arguing over territory. This is less likely to happen in a larger tank

[Andrew7769]

at that size you will prob be able to tell...if they are male and female they are bothmature and it might be mating behavior

[steve]

They do become darker as they grown, so its not surprising that the larger turtle is darker. Did you have them both as hatchlings? 6" is a bit large for a RES at that age.

[SKIPPY AND SNAPPY]

Yes, I did get them as hatchlings. I fed them everyday with reptomin, and once a week a little bit of canned tuna (water), or if they have been good, some small feeder fish (live gold fish). I have been very cautious about overfeeding.
However, when I went on a training exercise for a month, I had a friend take care of my turtles during that time, I believe he may have fed them too much and did not clean the tank at all. When I came back, Skippy, the smaller turtle had an eye infection and hardly ate. That is when Snappy grew faster, he had less competition for food. I have made the necessary accomodations so that both turtles receive the same amount of food, and have noticed that Skippy has grown some more now that he is healthy, and that Snappy has more or less stayed around the same size for the past month.

[steve]

You can scale down on the pellets, tuna (I'd make it a rare treat) and don't use gold fish (minnows and guppies are better but not necessary in a healthy diet). Have you tried giving them veggies and aquatic plants?

[SKIPPY AND SNAPPY]

Yes, I have tried giving them veggies and salad. They do not seem to eat it fast enough. Most of the time the food will decompose before they eat any of it. I have not tried the aquatic plants yet. Will give it a try though.
Thanks for all the good info.

[marisa]

How do you keep the salad and veggies in the water? Most should be able to stay in the water throughout the day if put in the tank in the morning. It would be good to put in fresh veggies when what's in there starts to look wilted and old. (I replace leafy greens daily if there are any still in the tank. Try giving less if there's always a lot left over. If you fed less of the foods you have been giving them and they're hungry, they'd be more apt to eat the greens at some point.

[SKIPPY AND SNAPPY]

Thanks for the good info. One of the many reasons why I decided to become a member of this site.