General Care Discussion :: Gravel question

[Little Luey]

I keep seeing in the forum the following advice being given to members with gravel in the RES tanks, "take the gravel out because the turtles will eat the grave".
My question is a silly one and I don't mean to be a smart...,
do the turtles only eat the gravel in the tanks and not gravel from they would live in nature? do they do it out of boredoom or the farmed turtles don't know they can get sick?

I like to fish and my undertanding is that fish from a fish farm are not as smart as fish from the wild, is it the same with RES?

[Tenodera]

Yes.

Turtles in captivity are generally bored creatures and do not receive the amount of change in their natural environment than in captivity.

and since turtles are very curious, they like to try to eat everything in their tank.

and since gravel is small enough to be consumed they will sometimes eat a lot of it. Some will pass through but sometimes it gets clogged in their intestines which will result in either death, or a surgery that costs a LOT and your turtle might still die.

Turtles are smarter in captivity since they interact with humans a lot more and they learn through our habits ( feeding times, which beggin routine would get them more food, etc etc)

[industrial_girl_2000]

Turtles in tanks are confined in one spot (tank) & will do anything to stay busy, including eating gravel or trying to eat anything else in the tank that isn't bolted down. In the wild, they have more distractions (plants, fish, other turtles, sand, sunlight, logs, etc.), and the bottom of a pond/lake is not necessarily going to have a bed of evenly-sized pea gravel (mostly mud or sand). So while they may eat some gravel in the wild, they don't get inundated with it like they would in a tiny tank.

[Little Luey]

ok, it makes sence. Thanks for the replies.
Is there anything we, as pet owners can do to provide some form of entretainment to our pets?
I seen some members talk about putting marbels in the tank for the turtles to push around, any other sujestion?

[TheComputerGremlin]

I've seen people put rubber duckies in their tanks (my hubby won't let me because he thinks my turtle will eat it cuz he eats everything else in the tank). Marbles. Maybe a ping pong ball if it's monitored. I noticed that if you use a dry erase marker and draw on the tank, it mesmerized my turtle for a good couple hours (I was drawing out what I wanted my new basking area to look like on the tank walls), though many people on the board caution to watch your turtle if you do this in case they become too fixated that they hurt their necks or beaks trying to eat the drawings. You can also try to change up the environment periodically, like swap out aquarium decorations to make it seem different.

[Nettle]

Some people use ping pong balls which keep them pretty busy. A bubbler, fake plants, rosy reds, and obstacles like PVC pipes or resin decorations are good, too.