His last owner was sort of unstable, and I'm not sure what kind of life he's had so far. I'm new at this and although I've been reading a lot about res care I just don't have experience and I worry about a lot of things. I decided to make this thread and get some advise from people with experience and maybe ease my mind.
The problem is where I live he's illegal so I can't take him to a vet, and finding an experienced owner willing and able to adopt would take time. In the mean time I want to take good care of him, and I hope to keep him.
Here is a really long text to describe anything I think may be relevant, so thank you in advance to anyone who actually takes time to read it, and especially comment
He has a ceramic heat lamp and a UV light with a timer (shines from 8am to 6pm, is this good? It's how it was set when I got it.). There's a filter that looks old, I think I'll replace it soon. There is no water heater and I'm having problems keeping temperature stable, living in an old house and a cold country. Water heat now is probably too cold, only about 68°Farenheit. I'm looking around for a water heater but it's not easy here.
I'm feeding him the pebbles he had (Nutrafin), a bit of dried freshwater shrimp and veggies. He likes cucumber and carrot, really loves pumpkin. He has a good appetite and will eat almost anything I give him. He gets excited and splashes around and stretches his head up to grab the food from my hand. I've started using tongs to avoid finger-biting accidents.
Biggest problem is the tank he came with, it's way to small. I'm financially restricted so I can't immediately get him a bigger one. The rock that was in the tank was too small for him to bask on anymore, it must have been put in before he grew so big. I had to turn it on its side to have a surface area large enough for him to sit on, but now it's lower and the water level is too low. I feel awful about this situation but outside is frozen and covered with snow so I can't find better stones, and I can't find any fake rocks big enough or the kind of platform that sticks to the wall in any petshops around.
What I'm planning to do is build a sort of box the size of the tank to attach beside it, and have a ramp made leading out of the tank. Then I can fill his tank with water so he'd have plenty room to swim AND plenty room to bask and explore and do whatever. This current situation is just absolutely unacceptable and I won't let guests see him out of shame
As for the little guy himself. I can't see anything that looks really wrong with the shell. No white spots or anything that looks like shell rot or cracks. It's not soft, but it's a dull brown colour, not green like I've seen in photos. The shell looks like there are growth lines, some thick and some thin like he had periods of growing a lot and being healthy and also periods of being sort of... maybe fed too little or something. It's a guess, based on the bipolar nature of his previous owner. Recently it has been looking bad, with brown splotches and even more dull, but it's shedding now and there is very dark but healthy looking shell underneath. The belly of the shell had a part that was sort of peeling off, that part sheds too, right? He doesn't seem concerned by it at all even if it scratched on the floor when he was walking.
He is shedding a lot of skin, too. Just the other day the loose skin started looking pink or red-ish, and I noticed the skin has a red hue around the base of the legs. I googled and I think it may be bacteria infection? I'll keep the water as clean as I can and keep an eye on this. If it get's worse and I can't go to a vet, is there some non-prescription way to fight that bacteria? Should I bee concerned if he has loose skin and sheds for a long period of time? How long are they usually doing this?
His skin also doesn't have good colours like in photos. The spot on his head is yellow not red, but it's not bright. It's sort of brown and... just dull. The white lines also have a brown hue and are not very clear.
His eyes look fine, not puffy and open just fine.
He eats well and poops fine. I dry him and let him walk around in the living room for a while after every feeding (can't let him roam free though, because of cat and old house death traps). He gets excited about that and is curious. When he is walking and lifts a front leg to step, sometimes the shell sort of clunks to the floor. Is this normal? I was worried that maybe his muscles were too weak, but he dashes over thresholds without problems. He has also peed and pooped on the floor, is that a stress thing or just a slob thing?
If I pick him up he is fine for a moment (or scared? It's hard to tell because I may not know how 'fine' really is with him) but then starts flailing around and scratches at my hands to get free. He likes to be on the floor and walk around.
He likes to move around everything that's loose in the tank, I've removed all but the biggest rocks to reduce the noise. He did it at night too, is it alright for them not to respect bedtime hours? Even sleep during the day? He moves the filter around too, the rubber rings that are supposed to keep it in place aren't strong enough for him. I've given up fighting him on this. I figure it's his room so he can place the filter where he likes it (as long as it's still submerged).
The tank was first set up in the living room, sort of high up and he liked to watch the people. I had to move it into my room a few days ago and since then he has just sat in one corner of the tank, watching me. Sometimes he swims frantically against the glass for a long time or raises himself up against it and scratches at it. Is this just attention seeking? Excitement to get out of the tank and walk around? The famous RES food begging? Anyway it worries me because he won't climb on his rock. I know the shell needs to dry out every now and then and he has just been sitting in the water for days. I've tried putting him on the rock but he immediately jumps back into the water. When I'm letting him walk around it's not really long enough to dry the shell completely. My father thinks it may have to do with the view. Do you think I should move the rock to the corner he now sits in to watch me? It's strange that he chose this corner because it's where everyone walks past the tank on the way in and out of the room and the door opens and closes close to it. He doesn't get startled often but I think I'll cover that side of the tank anyway to see if he takes to the rock, and also to block any draft coming from door opening/closing.
So yeah, that's a lot of text and probably some useless facts in there too. But if there's something I'm doing really wrong, or overlooking, or if you just want to offer some general advise I'd be grateful for it.
One last thing, that hunk of a shell still doesn't have a name! He's just been called 'Turtle' or some cutesy variant of that by me and the family. I think he deserves a proper name so suggestions are welcome as well
