General Care Discussion :: Um a watery poop question.. I'm concerned - SORRY for topic

[Oshynlover]

Okay to be honest I haven't really seem my turtle poop before - may be once when I cleaned the tank but it was a slim TOGETHERED piece of poop. Today I watched a 20 second at least episode of exploding diarrhea just running out of him in clouds.... the fish seemed to want it -eek. But seriously all he's been eatting lately is mini pellets (he's still small) and those Tubifex worms by hikari.

I thought I wasn't feeding too much but how many of the really tiny pellets do I feed him? sometimes he goes after the fish flakes too. wonder if its that. I try to feed them at the same time- actually turtle first so he is distracted when I feed the fish.

AH!!!!!!! Frustrated!

[TheComputerGremlin]

How big is "he's still small"? And what type of pellets, the baby Reptomin? I don't think too many pellets would cause diarrhea, more like too much lettuce or a stomach problem. I think people on here have mentioned their turtles having problems after eating some fish food, so maybe you need to distract him more ...

[SpotsMama]

On feeding your turtle, here's the authoritative link:

http://www.redearslider.com/index_nutrition.html

The main part of his diet should be pellets. for a little one, the rule of thumb is to feed them every day the amount of pellets that would fit in his head (not including his neck) if it were hollow. When he gets to be around 4" long, you cut back to a headfull of pellets every other day. Then you add lots of green leafy veggies (read leaf lettuce, green leaf lettuce), cuttlebone in the tank all the time, and a couple of servings a week of other veggies and certain fruit - like carrot peel, blueberries, steamed sweet potato, etc. That's it in a nutshell. All the particulars are on the link above.

On the diarrhea, the most common cause is too much lettuce (or other high fiber food in the diet). The second most common cause is that the turtle has eaten something he shouldn't. My turtle, for instance, once ate a big piece of a sulfa block that I put in the water before I knew any better and he got terrible diarrhea for days. Finally, your turtle could be ill with some disease or food poisoning, just like what people get occasionally.

If it doesn't clear up in the next day or two, and you still can't figure out what's causing it, I'd get him to a vet.

[Oshynlover]

I feed him the Zoo Med Hachling Aquatic Turtle Food. I feed him the head size amount like I have read. I just want to make sure. I feed him lettuce once in a while but I haven't in the past three days so that's odd.

I put the cutttle bone in there but he doesn't ever do anything to it. EEK actually I see now that it has little brown dots on it. Crap does that mean its getting something in it?

Thanks for the responses - truely.

[SpotsMama]

On the cuttlebone, perhaps it's got some turtle poop on it. If it were me, I'd probably change it out for something fresh.

By the way, you'll need to change the water in the aquarium and perhaps give the filter and decorations a good cleaning too.

[Oshynlover]

DO I DO A COMPLETE WATER CHANGE? or just the regular 20%?

[Chrisbarnett]

Well, I would say a complete cleaning if your turt had a diarrhea bowel movement.

[Oshynlover]

What if he does it again? Should I wait until it passes or change 40 gal each time?

[Chrisbarnett]

Well, In this case, I think you should clean the filter media, decorations in the tank and do a partial water change, maybe 20-30%. Basically agreeing all with what Spotsmama said. Hopefully it will pass soon.

Did you by any chance recently put in one of those white turtle shaped blocks? Turtles often eat those when placed in the tank and it gives them Diarrhea. I think Spotsmama's turtle had a case of that once?

[Oshynlover]

Did you by any chance recently put in one of those white turtle shaped blocks? Turtles often eat those when placed in the tank and it gives them Diarrhea. I think Spotsmama's turtle had a case of that once?

No but actually about 1 hr ago I did thinking he needed more calcium or something and he pecked at it and then left it alone. No diarrhea since though