General Care Discussion :: Turtles and Dogs amongst other things :D

[trotsky]

This is my first post so hellooooo...

I have a 21 year old RES which i adopted around two months ago. When i first got her i had no equipment to speak of, only a small tank and a filter. Since then ive invested in a huge tank, lighting, basking area, heater and a better filter so shes gone from the ghetto to a nice leafy suburb.

Im a little concerned or unsure about my dogs behaviour around the turtle. My dog is quite timid and friendly and especially motherly. She loves to watch the turtle although if she sees her trying to climb and fall she immediately begins crying and tries to dig through the glass to do what i can only describe as rescue the turtle.

She doesnt seem aggressive around the turtle and I would compare her behaviour to when she is visted by one of her old pups. She wants to wash it and nudge it around with her nose and generally mother it.

What are your experiences with turtles and dogs mixing? Im concerned that my turtle might snap at the dog and the dog will react negatively to that although being as timid as the dog is she would probably run away.


Also im concerned about the turtles behaviour. Before i could afford an appropriate setup i used to take her out of the small tank and put her in front of a large halogen heater on a shoe. She love it and spent most of the day there and i would put her into the tank for a swim at regular intervals. Now she has everything she needs in one tank she doesnt seem that content.

The water and basking area temperature are all fine but she still wants out of the tank for a good walk around and attempts to climb out all the time. She can reach a ledge from her basking area but has no chance of getting out and only serves to fall sidewards although if she really stretches she can reach her basking lamp. She has been burned twice, once on the head and once on the arm and aside from that im concerned that she will hurt herself when falling. Its not a huge distance nor will she fall onto anything hard but she often lands awkwardly. Although she hasnt hurt herself yet by falling im concerned that she will in future.

Will she always want out for a good adventure now or will she eventually become content in her new habitat? Also will she learn that the light burns and stop touching it and if not what measures can i take to protect her from it?

[jenaero]

It sounds to me that there might be another reason she's trying to get out. Are you sure it's a female? Constant digging with the back legs and constantly trying to get out of the tank are signs she needs to lay eggs.

Do you have a top on the tank at all? You need to find a way to keep her from getting out, and to keep her from getting near the lamps.

Can you post a pic of the setup so we can get an idea if anything needs improvement?

[trotsky]

Thanks for the swift reply. Im sure its female, she does dig alot in the gravel that supports the basking area, often displacing it but she does it with her front legs so i assumed she was looking for food. I just checked her out and at either side of the tail there are hard lumps, im not sure if this is normal and the anatomy pictures dont give much away. You cant see the lumps and i only knew they were there by gently touching it.

Should i setup a nesting area in the small and tank and see if she starts to prepare a nest?

Ill try to get a pic up later.

[trotsky]

On second thoughts i think those 'lumps' might be a normal part of her back legs, last time i turned her she wasnt struggling, this time she did and everything looked normal.

[industrial_girl_2000]

Congrats on adopting a BIG baby! Those older turtles have a lot of personality....I have had mine for 17 yrs (she was already big when I got her so I don't know exactly how old she is) and she is hilarious to be around.

My experience with dogs & turtles is that you will want to keep the dog away from the turtle. Reason being, once the dog overcomes the inital shock of the turtle, he may think the turtle is a chew toy & start chewing on it. This is very stressful to the turtle & can really hurt the shell. The shell is not as sturdy as people think it is and is susceptible to breakage under a dog's strong jaws.

How big is this turtle you have (how long is the shell from head to tail?)? How big is the tank you have her in? Reason why I ask is because if the tank is too small, a large turtle will feel very confined & try to climb out of the tank. The ideal size of tank is 10gal/inch length of shell. So for a 9"long turtle, ideal tank size is a 90gallon tank. I know this sounds excessive, but it really isn't when you think about it. You need to have room for the turtle to turn around & swim a bit. For our older turtles, a regular tank can be a real nightmare since they can't even turn around without hitting the glass. No wonder they want out.

And as someone else already mentioned, she may need to lay eggs. The hard areas on the left/right of the tail are totally normal. How to check: press gently with your finger in the soft fleshy area in the front of the hind legs & see if there is any resistance. Again, do this carefully because if there are eggs in there, you don't want to break them. If your finger goes all the way in with no resistance, then there are no eggs. If you want to be absolutely sure, take the turtle to the vet for an x-ray. If your turtle needs to lay eggs, then she shouldn't retain them (it's bad for her).

When you take her out, does she dig in the carpet with her hind legs? If so, that's another sign. Digging in the carpet is not the same as walking. Walking looks like walking. When a pregnant turtle digs, she does not propel herself forward. She will stay in one spot and dig and dig and dig (straining).

Let us know!

[RunninWideOpen]

Congrats on your new turtle!!

My suggestion is, if she wants out then enjoy some adventure time with her. Just keep her supervised and I would strongly suggest keeping the dog away from her. One of my girls likes to be out and will go exploring the house or the backyard, very fun. The other goes exploring for about 2 minutes and then realizes "I'm EXPOSED" and heads under the couch. I can't wait for my turtles to keep developing more personallity like that.

I would put a screen or something on the tank to make it completely impossible to escape. Spike got out once not too long ago by doing that. I thought there was no way he'd be able to reach up and pull himself over, but somehow he did it.

[marisa]

Welcome to the forum.I have no dogs, but from reading the experiences of some people who do, and whose dogs and turtles met with unfortunate consequences, I don't thing turtles and dogs mix. A turtle is not a chew toy, and it could be hard to convince a dog of that. Instinct usually rules with animals and I wouldn't want to have the worry that it could possibly happen.

If the light is so close that your turtle can touch it, it needs to be moved farther away.

If you're feeling for eggs, if there are any that are fully formed, you should feel lumps like grapes. Does she still have a good appetite? Females that are gravid generally lose their appetites.

[trotsky]

Hello again.
Im pretty sure shes not gravid, her appetite is as strong as ever, perhaps even stronger as shes spent this morning trying to eat the tanks heater
At first i thought there might be some food stuck somewhere, but shes definitely trying to eat the heater haha. Im sure she will learn eventually, she stopped trying to eat the plastic plants pretty quickly although she still hasnt quite come to terms with her inability to swim through glass.

She has stopped trying to climb out now and seems far more settled in the tank and no more impressions of Icarus so far. The burns she recieved previously are healing quite well.

Recently when ive had to take her out of the tank she has started scratching and biting whereas before she was comfortable with being handled. Im assuming thats because i needed to handle her often when she had the small tank and now she only relies on me for food.

My dog is still obsessed with the turtle and spends more time in my room now than she ever did watching her swim around although ive kept them completely separate just incase.

[RunninWideOpen]

Sounds like the little lady's gettin settled into her new tank! Fantastic!

I've got one turtle the tries to bite me when I pull her out also. She just doesn't like to be picked up.

[SpotsMama]

Hi trotsky,

Your girl sounds like a character!

What kind of heater do you have in the tank? If it's glass, your big girl might break it by biting. I'm sure she has a bite like a steel trap. There are plastic heaters out there that a turtle can't break. A brand that a lot of us use is a Stealth Visitherm.

[trotsky]

Its a visi-therm glass heater, she has stopped trying to eat it now.
I made some major changes to her habitat recently, ive removed the lid from the big tank and replaced it with wood with a ramp and placed the small tank on top to make her a big basking area completely outside of the big tank. Ill get a picture up soon, she really loves it!

I have a question regarding sleeping, ever since i finished the new basking area she spends maybe half the night sleeping underwater and the rest sleeping in the basking area or on the ramp, is it normal for turtles to sleep outside of the water?

[marisa]

Some turtles do prefer to sleep out of the water and some don't. My RES likes to sleep under water, as do two of my eastern painteds. I have another painted that sleeps on the basking area all night (he comes out of the water when the light goes off) and greets the dawn on it. I have another painted who will spend all or part of the night on the basking area.

The turtles that do this (sleep out of the water) do so in the summer, and when they're inside. In the winter/cool months everyone sleeps in the water where it's no doubt warmer. My painteds are outside for the summer and everyone sleeps under water where it's warmer as well (and probably because they feel safer from predators).