General Care Discussion :: Anyone know of a turtle that just didn't grow?

[rachel60641]

I am curious because my friend has several red earred sliders and had one yellow earred slider. The yellow earred was her first and she had it about 3 years and it was still the same size as the day she got it. (about silver dollar size if that) She added the red ears later and they grew quite rapidly but the yellow just never grew. Sadly Thur. night the little one passed away leaving her heart broken since she was very attached to the little one. Has anyone heard of a slider that stays so small for so long? Any help would be appreciated.

[meltedspork]

Were they all in the same tank? My guess is that the red ears ate all the food and didn't leave much for the yellow eared.

[Caphits]

Parasite?

[untsmurf]

My turtle hasn't grown as much as he should, but he's not hatchling sized. He's a 4.5'' RES that I've had for four years. He didn't reach 4'' within his first year like he should have. I don't know if his growth is stunted or what, but he doesn't have any health issues.

I would agree with meltedspork though. I think either your RES were stealing food which caused the YBS to starve to death, or your YBS had some sort of parasite.

[Raphulk]

well, my brother in law (he is a former pet store owner) and he has had a couple red ear sliders that he's had for 4 years..and my turtle which I've had for almost 2 years is bigger than both of them...

[Deon]

I've had my turtle for about 8 months and it has only grown about .3 inches so i guess that means she won't grow to be very big.
I guess the space the YBS had and the amount of food she got in her first 1 -2 years of her life will affect how big she will be quite a lot.

[joeybsmooth]

3 Things that I know of .

1. As said before parasites .
2. Just not getting food.
3. Is just a little guy. Like we have short people like me, the turtle could have just been a short turtle .

[SpotsMama]

Everyone should get their turtles checked for parasites. All you have to do is take a stool sample to a vet. It shouldn't cost much as it's an easy test to do. Parasites in turtles are pretty common.

[pickerbp22]

i just adopted a 10 year old western painted thats only about 4 inches or 5 inches

[Rubicon]

On another note Male Texas Map turtles don't get larger than 3.5". My wife wants one soo bad.

[Linus]

My friend has two 2 year old red ears and they're still 1.5" because she only feeds em blood worms.