General Care Discussion :: turtle not basking

[qaz79]

I have a red ear slider and he will not eat commercial food and bask. He will only eat live food and the temp is fine. What should I do?

[kiwigerman]

is the basking area warmer than the water? what temp is the water? and how old is the turtle?

[qaz79]

the basking area is in the tank at the temp as the water. the water is at 80- 85 degrees. i'm not exactly how old he is but is a juvenile. i don't know how old that is.

[octpusgirl8]

Do you mean that the basking area is in the water? Turtles need to be able to bask out of the water where they can get thier shell nice and dry, it's very improtant for thier health. If you do have a dry spot for him, you need to have a basking light to heat it up to around 10 degrees warmer than the water, this will encourage him to bask. You also need to get him a UVB light if you don't have one already, this is crucial for his growth and development. If you haven't already, read through all the basic care info on redearslider.com, it will hook you up with all the information you need to keep your turtle happy and healthy. Good luck!

[SpotsMama]

Octpusgirl8 makes some very good recommendations. I think you'll find the answers to most of your questions in the information section of this site. Right off the bat, you need to look a several things: lowering water temperature, raising basking area temperature, several dietary changes.

Can you post a picture of your turtle and his/her setup? We might be able to recommend some more things if we could see the whole picture.

[qaz79]

yeah his basking area is in the water. i got one of those turtle docks for him. also have a basking light for him. but another problem is that he won't eat dry food like pellets and reptomen and veggies. but only eat worms that's all he will eat.

[SpotsMama]

Have you read this section yet?

http://www.redearslider.com/entice_eating.html

What do you think of these recommendations?

[kikicool]

How long have you had him? When I got mine from the pet store, they were used to eating live prey and it took them a little while to accept the pellets and veggies. One turtle about a week, the other about three!

[qaz79]

i'll give those recommendations a try and see if it works. i had him since october 2006 at a flea market. the guy that i him off of said that he eats meat like steak and beef and that. i didn't try it i knew better then that i never had a turtle but a friend of mine did he had a boxer and i remembered that he eat veggies so i knew that guy was full of it.

[marisa]

When you say he'll only eat worms, what kind are you feeding him?

[qaz79]

mealworms, earthworms, and superworms.

[marisa]

That's a fairly unbalanced diet. The mealworms really aren't good for him---no nutrition. A lot of them will keep calcium in his diet from being absorbed.

[qaz79]

what worms would be good then?

[steve]

Earthworms are OK in moderation.

[qaz79]

what about superworms?