General Care Discussion :: Petri eats EVERYTHING!!!

[PetriTheTurtle]

Ok, so my poor turtle has a very bare and boring tank. She's got her ramp and basking area and some large river rocks at the bottom, but that's it.

I tried to add some decorations (fake plants and a piece of drift wood) but she just tries to eat them! I think she might have swallowed a piece of plastic plant!

I tried real plants, but she just eats those too! Any advice on how to make her tank more "natural" looking and less bare without adding things that she might try to eat?

She seems to love eating ANYTHING and EVERYTHING! She even chomps on the river rocks at the bottom of the tank (don't worry, they are way too big for her to swallow!).

[Vtolds]

Do you have a background? that always makes tanks look better in my opinion. I wouldn't be to worried about your res trying to eat drift wood. I have a piece of fake drift wood and my Res was biting at it the other night but no harm was done to it.

[PetriTheTurtle]

i had one for my old tank (40 gallons) but now it looks kind of silly with the new 65 gallon tank, so i might have to invest in a larger one.!

[RunninWideOpen]

My turtles went after the fake plants for the first week or so after I got them, but eventually realized they aren't food.

are you sure she was able to bite a piece off?

[SpotsMama]

I've got some plaster aquarium decorations in Spot's tank - some fake coral and sponges. I don't think Spot could bite through them if he tried. Just be careful if there are holes in the bottom of the decoration if the hole is small enough that your turtle could stick his head in it and get stuck. I had to plug the holes in the bottom of some of my stuff with aquarium silicon to keep Spot out.

Sounds like your turtle is very bitey. Does she have a cuttlebone to chew on? Maybe it will let her work off some of those bitey aggressions!

[PetriTheTurtle]

Its funny, cuttlebone is the only thing in her tank she's not interested in! She'll take a bite when I first throw it in then she'll ignore it. If I soak it in the juice from a can of tuna she'll take a few bites until the taste rinses off and then ignore it. She used to love it when I first got her a 4 or 5 years ago, but has lost interest in it the past couple of years.

As for being bitey... its weird, she'll chew on pretty much anything in her tank but she doesn't nip at me. I can even hand feed her crickets and she never goes for my finger... I think she's more curious/hungry than aggressive!

I think I'm going to keep the fake plants in there for now and see if she figures out they're not food. I think she was able to rip off a piece, but she didn't swallow it (i found it stuck to the filter intake).

[erinemcgreevy]

A floating log looks pretty cool and it takes up some space.