General Care Discussion :: Floating Dock Buffet

[NicoleBell]

I keep catching Neptune going over to his floating dock and when he is not climbing it he is EATING IT! Any ideas on what to do? Should i buy a different type of dock?

This is the dock i have.

[roseK]

i dont have that issue, but my cousin did. im not sure how to stop it, but after the dock was gone he didnt use the floating one again..

[octpusgirl8]

My turtle never ate his when i had this kind of dock, but apparently it's fairly common. I'd get another style of basking area, it can't be good for him to be eating all that stuff. Some people have suggested that they are looking for more calcium in thier diets or something to chew on, you could try offering cuttlebone and see if that distracts him from the dock. Definitely don't let him keep eating it though.

[kgielda]

Harvey bites at his, but I haven't seen any chunks taken out. I always thought he was playing with the bubbles (there is an airstone that is under the dock, and the bubbles float up along the sides of it).

[Bumby's Mom]

You can try this one:
http://www.reptiledirect.com/index.asp? ... ProdID=732
I used the measurments for when my uncle built Nyx and the babies docks, the large one is LARGE lol.
I have heard of turtles eating those docks and to be honest they are so expensive I would buy a different one.

[grey goose]

Those docks do contain calcium, but probably not the healthy kind. Try clipping a fairly large piece of cuttlebone (with the hard backing removed) to the side of the tank. Maybe he will chew on that and leave his dock alone.....

[emma]

I have heard of this happening before. The only thing I can think of that you can probably do is get another dock that cannot be destroyed by your turtle, or try the cuttlebone thing that grey goose metioned.

[NicoleBell]

he currently is going through his cuttlebones like they are going out of style. So it might be a calcium thing. His shell was pretty damaged from the previous owners, all the way to its pinkish center!

We will definitely get an acrylic ramp asap and replace this one. Hopefully it will be ok for him for a little bit.

[grey goose]

My guys will tear through it one day, then ignore it the next....but I'm for giving them as much as they want, especially if they have or had shell problems.

[Blue Flamingo]

I recently had this problem with one of my turtles, he chewed up a whole corner of the dock. However, he hadn’t had cuddle bone in a while so I decide to feed him some, after I put a chunk of that in he lost interest in the dock and has stopped trying to eat the dock. Could be a coincidence but you might give that a try.

Edit. Oh this was said already, whoops

[sarah85]

My RES eats hers 2, i bought her turtle bones, they have calcium in them and it helps unwanted chewing, but she was scared of them and didnt chew on them, try puttin those in the tank 1st and see if it helps, if not try gettin a different kinda dock