General Care Discussion :: one's growing...one's not

[bam]

I got 2 baby res at the same time...about 3 months ago...they were basically the same size...now one of them has almost tripled in size and the other has not grown at all...he/she is about the size of a quarter...I posted before and you told me that one may be getting most of the food, so I made sure that the smaller one got food too, but it still hasn't grown a bit!! The bigger one is starting to be kind of rough on the little one...should I be concerned about him hurting it? Should I be worried that it's not growing?

Also, how can I tell the difference between a male and female res?

Thank you!!

[Boston_Zhao]

dont know abt eating, but the one with concave plastron is male, flat is female, the vet told me

[cam722]

dont know abt eating, but the one with concave plastron is male, flat is female, the vet told me

According to experienced turtle keepers that isn't always true. You usually cannot tell the sex of a turtle until they are about 4".. their tails are different sizes and their nails are different lengths..

female smaller tail and nails..
male larger tail and long nails.

There are numerous posts in the forum regarding this and some have pictures, you may want to try doing a search so you can see for yourself

[missibsu]

You definitely need to keep an eye on the aggression. You don't want to end up with one turtle injured. Is the smaller of the two growing at all? Are you judging growth by actual measurements, or by sight? I had one turt that grew faster than the other, and she ended up being the female. At the time I wasn't certain of gender. She is still the bigger one, although not triple the size by any means. The concave method of telling gender is not accurate for RES. It is a better method used for box turts, etc.

[bam]

I'm judging by sight, but I really don't think the little one has grown at all...it's head may be a bit bigger, but the shell looks the same...they seem to love each other most of the time, but the bigger one sometimes gets aggressive during feeding...I try to feed them seperately...thanks for the help!!

[Boogerbutt02]

You may have to end up putting them in separate tanks... is the smaller turtle basking enough?

[bam]

Yes, it basks a lot...sometimes it sits on top of the bigger one and basks...they seem to be friends..they get along fine most of the time, except sometimes if they are reaching for the same food...I try to feed them seperately. I truly think they would miss each other if i seperated them!!