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i have had my RES for about nine months. i have never put rocks in the bottom of her tank until last week. at first all she wanted to do was eat them, although, i dont think she actually ate any. but now she keeps digging in them. is there anything i can do to stop her from doing it? she's been waking me up at all hours of the night digging. what could she possibly be looking for?

Foraging for food is something that turtles do. She's most likely smelled a morsel of trapped food or poop and is trying to dig it out. If she's trying to eat the rocks make sure they're all larger than the size of her head so she can't.

You don't need to have the tank bottom covered with rocks (it makes more work when you clean and it will trap debris). Just a handful, or, if you've got a large tank, a section of the bottom with rocks will suffice.

i like having the rocks down there. it makes it look nice...but if they can harm her i will definatly take them out. thanks for your advice

Sounds like she is just digging just for diggings' sake! LOL. Turtles will do anything to stay busy and you will read stories from people on here about how their turtles will rearrange the tanks. It's very funny actually.

Yes, turtles love to fool with rocks and push them around. But just a few big ones on the bottom will do - you don't have to cover the bottom for the turtle's sake. It's a lot easier to keep clean with just a few rocks.

What Marisa said about not letting your turtle actually eat rocks is very important. If they can, turtles will eat rocks but it's very dangerous for them. We've seen over and over on here where someone's turtle has eaten gravel and it stops them up inside and eventually they die. Just be sure that whatever is in your girl's tank is too big for her to eat.

You could put a piece of aquarium backing that's just rocks under the tank to make it look like something's covering the whole bottom. Then just add a handful of non-edible size rocks in the tank for your turtle to fool with.