General Care Discussion :: Attacking/biting tubes - irritated turtle

Taking care of your turtle's overall health.

Post Posted: Fri Dec 03, 2021 9:41 pm   Attacking/biting tubes - irritated turtle

Hello, I have a 6yr old RES.
I have had him his entire life, and he has always been very friendly and have had no real issues with his behavior, until just recently..

Lighting routine is 7am-9pm, with a high intensity basking light from 1130am-430pm.

After his lights shut off at 9pm, he seems to get irritated and over the course of the next hour or so begins attacking his bubbler tubes, or thermometer wires. He bites onto the wire and will not let go, he aggressively yanks himself back and fourth trying to break the wire it seems. He makes A LOT of noise doing this, and keeps me away. He bashes into the glass tank walls, kicks up rocks, and smashing his own face into the glass during these incidents.

It has become pretty regular in the last week, and has been waking me up IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT (2AM last night) while attacking his bubbler tubing…

I replaced all the bubbler tubes and got a new bubbler rock, I removed the thermometer wires, but he just fixates on something else and attacks.

What is his deal? He is obviously stressed and this behavior only comes out when the lights are off (and I am trying to sleep myself……)

Any suggestions??
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Tank setup 2


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Tank setup 1


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Tucker biting his thermometer wire
MrWoppit
 
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Gender: Male

Post Posted: Sat Dec 04, 2021 8:12 am   Re: Attacking/biting tubes - irritated turtle

My male RES started to do this awhile ago and there wasn't really any solution. I had to separate him from his tankmate and he would then be biting his decorations. I've gone with a natural cork-bark basking area which looks nice and isn't harmful if bites a small piece of it. The rest of his tank is bare but now he has an aggressive habit of biting his hand, especially at night when the lights are off.
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steve
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Joined: Apr 11, 2005
Location: New York, NY
Gender: Male


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