General Care Discussion :: Is this normal?

[dmetherall]

Hi, I've had my 2 sliders for a few years now and they have started something new. They are biting on their basking dock. I have all these little floaties in the water so I'm pretty sure they're not swallowing the pieces. Just bitting it. Has anyone had this experience? Is there a reason they are doing this and should I get them something special to bite on? Any help would be appreciated. I am new to this forum and have a feeling I'll be on it quite a bit now!

[octpusgirl8]

Yeah, they do that sometimes. Do you have any cuttlebone in there for them to chew on? I've heard that can help. If this doesn't stop i'd recommend getting a different style of dock, such as this one: http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/p ... &N=0&Nty=1
I use it, as do a few others on the forum, and it's pretty nice. I used the zoomed docks for a long time, but i found that they got kind of nasty after a while. Definitely don't let them keep eating at it though, it can't be good for them. And by the way, welcome to the forum

[dmetherall]

Thanks octpusgirl8. I looked at the dock. I think I'll switch to that one and try the cuttlebone. I'm curious though as to why they just now started this. I guess they're like kids. Everything in stages!

[octpusgirl8]

Yeah...who knows why they do what they do! They might ignore the cuttlebone for a while, but keep offering it, it took mine about 6 months to finally give it a try. Just be sure to chip off the hard backing on the cuttlebone, it's a pain but it needs to be done. I've found that it helps to break it into pieces first.

[SpotsMama]

There's a theory that they try to eat the dock when they are craving calcium. Perhaps they only recently ran short of calcium in their diet.

[stray_647]

I have to agree with everyone. My turtles started doing that around May. It's when they turned 1 year old. They were constantly biting into the dock. I started giving them bite size of cuttle bone every other day for about 2 weeks. They have completely stopped. I make sure to give them bite size once every week now.

[dmetherall]

Thanks everyone! I will try the cuttlebone and a different dock.

[jridge]

Yeah, they do that sometimes. Do you have any cuttlebone in there for them to chew on? I've heard that can help. If this doesn't stop i'd recommend getting a different style of dock, such as this one: http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/p ... &N=0&Nty=1
I use it, as do a few others on the forum, and it's pretty nice. I used the zoomed docks for a long time, but i found that they got kind of nasty after a while. Definitely don't let them keep eating at it though, it can't be good for them. And by the way, welcome to the forum