How big is your turtle? 10 inches
How long have you had it? about 2 yrs, previous owners had her 2-2 1/2 years before that.
What is the water temperature? 76-78
Did you use a thermometer? yes
Are you using a water heater? yes
How much water is in there? about 60 gallons
Are you using a water conditioner? yes
Are you using any filtration? yes
What is the basking temperature? 77-83 (winter is here)
Is there a basking light? yes
Is there a basking platform that is easy to climb on? yes
What kind is it or what is it made out of? zoo med and cork bark
Is there a UVB light? yes, two. One halogen shaped and one UVB/heating light
What have you been trying to feed it? everything, about 5 different types of pellets, lettuce, carrots, crickets, aquatic ymmies, krill, river shrimp.
When was the last time your turtle ate? day before yesterday- river shrimp.
How big is the tank/pond/enclosure? 75 gal
Is the tank near a window? no
Is the tank in a room with a lot of activity? no
Have you read the Basic Care section? yes
Have you searched the forums for similar situations? a lot
Is there any other unusual activity/symptoms?
Here I go.... Frankie is a female RES about 4-5 years old. We rescued her from a family that was going to release her into the wild at winter time- could not refuse. She came to us in a very small tank and had not had propper lighting or diet- the owners talked about how they put her in a sink and scrubbed the algae off of her every week- obviously lighting was not good.
When Frankie was placed in her new mansion of a tank she grew like crazy and continued pyramiding. Since we did not know much we did not feed her that well and she got a little tubby. As of late we have been trying to feed her better but she simply refuses. So she does have a bit of a shell problem because of this. Her shell looks transparent like she needs to shed it but it won't come off. As far as her weight- it has gone back down now since she has slowly reduced what she eats.
So that is the shell question, now for the behavioral questions.
When we got her it was at the end of an actually cold winter so we did not have any behavior to go on and since we live in Texas last year's "winter" was not cold at all so we did not notice any changes.
Lately since the temp has fallen Frankie was not basking at all. I bought a piece of cork bark and raised the lights up so it would be cooler (it seemed too warm for her at first) and she seemed to like that. Now she stays on the dock sometimes all night. I am not worried about that as much anymore but I have noticed that now she is not pooping and that bothers me.
It makes sense that if she does not eat she does not poop but she shows absolutely no other weird signs other than the eating and pooping.
She swims around like she always has, she gets on the dock and stretches out and seems fine. She does not breathe funny, has clear eyes and is as alert and responsive as she always has been.
Most foods that I have tried she will either refuse or spit them out.
Normally we would feed her HBH turtle bits with red leaf lettuce and sometimes HBH turtle treats, OSI aquatic pellets and the occasional vitakraft Gammare.
She stopped eating so we have tried Hikari Turtle sticks and aqua turtle monster diet as well as can 'O crickets and river shrimp.
We also give her shredded carrots every once and a while and she used to love those as well as the river shrimp.
So recently she would try to eat the carrots and spit them out, same with the other foods. She will eat Gammare sometimes (though we try to limit that because too much is bad) and she will eat all the river shrimp you can throw at her (but too much of that is bad as well).
It has been a long time since I saw poo so I wondered if she is just slowing down for the winter and doesn't have the poo and is just not hungry or does anybody think she may be either Gravid, constipated or have an impacted bowel?
I have looked at all the posts I can and normally I get an answer but there is too much conflicting info on these symptoms so I had to ask.
One last thing... Her beak looks a little over grown, she does have a cuttle bone in the tank but it never seems to do much for the beak. She can open her mouth fine and eat when she wants. not sure.
Sorry for the book I just wrote, just want to get some imput before we take the trip to the vet, Frankie is a good turtle and she has gotten used to me in the year and a half we have known each other but she does not like to be handled and has killer tallons on her back legs. (ouch)
I will post some pics, I don't have any current ones yet- these are from last year.
Thanks!
Richard
early 2007
late 2007
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