Other Turtle Discussion :: Turtle Social Behavior

[mimikidoturtle]

I actually have two questions for some one to please help me answer first I want to know besides taking the turtle to the vet how can you tell the age of an RES turtle? Second I have a big turtle it's an yellow bellied slider I don't know the age but I do know it's a female then I just recently recieved another RES turtle that's a baby I don't know the gender or age yet but I put them together in the tank and the big turtle pushes the little turtle all around especially if she doesn't want her on the deck and snaps at the baby at times also why? is this natural or could the big turtle be jealous? Can somebody help me here especially if their turtle has done the same Cause sometimes I'm scared the big turtle will be too rough and hurt or kill the baby.

[jenaero]

It's a strong possibility that the larger turt WILL kill the baby. Never house turts of such differing size together for that very reason. You need to separate them right away.

There's no real way to tell the age of a turt unless you know the hatching date. Going by size/color/whatever just isn't accurate. A vet would be able to give you a good estimate probably.

[CountryGirl68]

Turtles are generally solitary animals in the wild, only interacting with other turtles during mating. Just as with any other animal, keeping captive turtles together can lead to territorial issues and, during mating, they can also be violent towards each other.

My friend has had two RES turtles (male & female) for several years in the same tank. She just had to take the female to the vet for an eye infection. The male turtle decided he was ready to mate and took a bite out of the female's eye. So you should keep the smaller turtle in a different tank than the larger one.

[SpotsMama]

I understand about how it's ok for turtles to live solitary lives, and agree there's a real danger in mixing up the big ones and the little ones in a tank, but here where we live in Texas the wild turtles all live in colonies in the big ponds. There are so many of them they will pile up on top of one another on good basking logs.

I suppose it makes a difference when they've got a lot of living space, and of course we don't know how many of them are injured or killed by their fellow turtles in the wild.