Other Turtle Discussion :: using fish nets???

[Pugness]

I go away for a few weeks and i call my mom to see if she was feeding the turtles and she says she has but she was using a fish net to scoop up the turtles, she only did it once but i wasnt sure whether or not thats healthy, i told my mom not to do it anymore and to scoop them up by hand, yesterday i found out that my friends sister has been using a net to scoop up the turtles to feed them in a seperate container so i was just wandering if this was safe...

[cam722]

Are they doing this because they are afraid to touch the turtles because of disease or are they afraid of them? You may want to let them know that the chances of them getting salmonella from handling your turtles is less than it would be from handling raw chicken. I don't think it would hurt the turtles to pick them up with a net and might actually be safer if they are afraid of the turtles and might possibly drop them. The easier thing would be for them to just feed them in the tank while you are gone and you can go back to the out of tank feedings when you return.

[steve]

I'm curious... are the turtles able to completely fit into your net? My worst fear would be a nail getting caught and pulled off (especially for a larger male). I like the idea of feeding in tank to avoid the situation. Maybe you can show them how to change a small amount of water to keep the water clean.

[Pugness]

cool stuff, thanks guys, my mom uses her hands now i told her to make sure she washes her hands, im gonna be coming back home this weekend so i can teach her how to do a little bit of a water change to keep the water clean.

[marisa]

OT, but my RES actually seems to like crawling into the net I use to pick up debris (but without any debris in it) and letting me pull him around in the tank. I've gotten a bigger one to accomodate him. I don't use the ones with the larger holes, and there never has been a problem with getting his nails stuck.