redearslider.com

Posted: **Mon Sep 24, 2007 10:06 am**

Hi, I've had my 2 sliders for a few years now and they have started something new. They are biting on their basking dock. I have all these little floaties in the water so I'm pretty sure they're not swallowing the pieces. Just bitting it. Has anyone had this experience? Is there a reason they are doing this and should I get them something special to bite on? Any help would be appreciated. I am new to this forum and have a feeling I'll be on it quite a bit now!

Posted: **Mon Sep 24, 2007 10:10 am**

Yeah, they do that sometimes. Do you have any cuttlebone in there for them to chew on? I've heard that can help. If this doesn't stop i'd recommend getting a different style of dock, such as this one: http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/p ... &N=0&Nty=1
I use it, as do a few others on the forum, and it's pretty nice. I used the zoomed docks for a long time, but i found that they got kind of nasty after a while. Definitely don't let them keep eating at it though, it can't be good for them. And by the way, welcome to the forum

Posted: **Mon Sep 24, 2007 10:17 am**

Thanks octpusgirl8. I looked at the dock. I think I'll switch to that one and try the cuttlebone. I'm curious though as to why they just now started this. I guess they're like kids. Everything in stages!

Posted: **Mon Sep 24, 2007 1:58 pm**

Yeah...who knows why they do what they do! They might ignore the cuttlebone for a while, but keep offering it, it took mine about 6 months to finally give it a try. Just be sure to chip off the hard backing on the cuttlebone, it's a pain but it needs to be done. I've found that it helps to break it into pieces first.

Posted: **Mon Sep 24, 2007 3:29 pm**

There's a theory that they try to eat the dock when they are craving calcium. Perhaps they only recently ran short of calcium in their diet.

Posted: **Mon Sep 24, 2007 5:09 pm**

I have to agree with everyone. My turtles started doing that around May. It's when they turned 1 year old. They were constantly biting into the dock. I started giving them bite size of cuttle bone every other day for about 2 weeks. They have completely stopped. I make sure to give them bite size once every week now.

Posted: **Mon Sep 24, 2007 8:56 pm**

Thanks everyone! I will try the cuttlebone and a different dock.

Posted: **Wed Sep 26, 2007 2:15 pm**

octpusgirl8 wrote:Yeah, they do that sometimes. Do you have any cuttlebone in there for them to chew on? I've heard that can help. If this doesn't stop i'd recommend getting a different style of dock, such as this one: http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/p ... &N=0&Nty=1
I use it, as do a few others on the forum, and it's pretty nice. I used the zoomed docks for a long time, but i found that they got kind of nasty after a while. Definitely don't let them keep eating at it though, it can't be good for them. And by the way, welcome to the forum

redearslider.com

Is this normal?

Is this normal?

I have this dock and it is great !!!