General Care Discussion :: my turtle is bitting the other turle

[fastmotion]

i have two hachling turtles and the female is bitting the male i dont know why. please help.

[missibsu]

What is the size of their set up? How much water does it have? How long have they been together?

edit - if this persists, separate them before you have a major problem!

[fastmotion]

1" 2gallon 10 days

[DaddySkittles]

Get a bigger tank, and if it consists then sperate them.

[Kallistos]

Fastmotion, the tank needs to be at least 20 gallons, that's 10x bigger than what you have right now! Please read the basic care section, I can guarantee you that it's only a matter of time before they die if you don't fix their set-up.

[missibsu]

The sooner you fix their habitat, the better chance you will have at being able to keep them together in the long haul. It's possible that you may never be able to keep them together.

Rule of thumb suggests 10 gallons of water per inch of shell. Since they are so small, you can count on a great deal of growth in the first year and multiply that by two since you have more than one turtle. 20 gallons would be a great start, but if you can afford to do so, I'd go much bigger. You will save money in the long run, instead of doing frequent expensive upgrades.

If you can't afford an aquarium, check into rubbermaid containers, or check websites such as craigslist.com for a cheap used set up.

[Pizza]

Just curious, if your turtles are hatchlings, how exactly do you know that one is a female, and the other is a male?

Hatchlings are usually around 1-2 inches big, and the genders look the same until they get bigger when gender characteristics appear (usually about 4-5 inches).

Males have long front nails, and long fat tails, females have small short tails and small normal length nails.