General Care Discussion :: Pokey is a strong swimmer!

[Pokey's Grandpa]

Well, he refuses to eat or touch the cuttlebone I busted up for him but I have noticed he LOVES swimming! He has a 10 gallon tank an is about halfway full and he is barely bigger than a quarter so he has lots of room. He keeps swimming all over, back and forth, and up and down.

He first swam straight down, the bottom of the tank seems really reflective and he tried to dive deep I guess and bashed his head on the bottom. Now he is more careful.

But when he is done swimming he goes back to the basking pad and rests and then dives back in.

The problem is, I keep depositing turtle pellets but all the constant motion seems to be breaking them down really fast. So I put in some more for him to havbe a chance to eat and then just keep dissolving.

If I put them on his little basking pad will he know they are food and eat them? Or will he just ignore them?

[sonyj]

Just offer him the pellets once a day... if they don't get eaten then try the next day. Don't keep putting more in. He'll eat when he had adjusted to his new home and he gets hungry enough to do so. It took mine a week to eat after I got him and he was as small as yours.

[marisa]

Will he eat/does he try to eat the pellets? If so, you might try feeding him in a separate container of water where there isn't so much motion in the water.

Why is there so much motion in the water? What kind of filter are you using?

What brand of pellets are you using?

[Pokey's Grandpa]

No no, he refuses to try to eat at all I guess I am just impatient, over protective about him and afraid he will starve.

Also I don't have a filter yet and I was wrong about the pellets dissolving, I couldn't see them because they all moved under his little basking platform.

So they didn't dissolve and the motion is because he swims constantly. When he is super tired out then he basks and sleeps and then wakes up to swim again! I hope he isn't trying to get away from us

[Ozzyy]

dont worry... no wild animal will let them selves starve. the mind isnt as stong as it is in animals (especialy reptiles) as it is in humans (thats why we humans can talk our selves into diets and such )

[steve]

Animals can certainly starve especially when placed in strange and stressful conditions as well as offered non-natural and foreign foods.