General Care Discussion :: Weird behavoiur, maybe RI?

[jyu67]

Recently I noticed my hatchling (maybe around 1-1.5") to be very inactive. At first I thought it was the water quality, as I haven't kept up with tank maintenance. After I changed the water he seemed to have gotten a bit better but now, he's back to the old symptons.

He's always sleeping on the eggcrate dock (just under the water surface) with his eyes closed and hands and legs tucked in. When he's eating he doesn't seem to be able to swallow the pellets anymore, even if I make them very small. It takes him a while and ends up spitting a lot of it out. Today I saw him "yawn" too and if I remember correctly that's a bad sign. Are these symptons of RI? Should I be taking him to a vet?


He's also in a tank with a larger guy, around 3 inches but the big guy is fine. Strong, healthy and very active.

Also, I've had him/her for about 5 months now, but he doesn't seem to be growing. I remember that my "big guy" had a period of rapid growth and then now he slowed down, but the little guy just seems to be always...small!

Any advice appreciated!
Jon

[Arisu]

do you watch them both eat? your bigger turtle may be hogging most of the food and discouraging your smaller turtle to try to eat. also, your smaller turtle may be intimidated by your larger one.

you may want to consider separating them for good. for now, you can try feeding them separately (maybe taking the bigger turtle out before you feed the little one).

if your turtle is sleepy all the time, he may be sick. not sure if you should rush him to the hospital asap. wait see what other members suggest.

[jyu67]

All along I've been taking the smaller guy out to a separate tub to eat. Once he finishes eating he gets put back into the tank. Recently he hasn't been finishing his food even after 1 hour, so I decided to feed him in tank. The big guy usually slams at the glass when he sees me so I just wait until the little guy comes to surface, and then throw broke up pellet pieces at him. 50% of the time he sees it and eats it. So I'm sure that every day he is getting his pellets. I'm feeding him 1.5-2 Reptomin Pellets right now. He also gets veggies everyday, but he doesn't seem interested yet so the big guy probably eats it all.

[TheComputerGremlin]

Okay, first, if your little one has an RI or other illness, you need to separate them immediately. The illnesses can spread to your healthy turtle. Your sick turtle needs to be kept in a full setup tank, with basking area and a water temp of around 80 degrees F.

In the feeding tank, is the water being maintained at 76? If the water temp decreases, his metabolism will decrease and he won't eat. The whole feeding process shouldn't take more than a few minutes. If he doesn't eat everything in that time frame, put him back in the main tank.

The fact that the little guy isn't growing could mean he has an internal parasite. Can you get a stool sample and take it to a vet? Any vet can process a stool sample for parasites/worms, so you don't need to look for a herp vet for that.

[jyu67]

I never actually set up a full feeding tank. I take water from the main tank and put it in a separate bucket. He usually eats quickly enough that he goes back in the main tank within minutes anyways.

I will try to get a sample, so I can take it to any random vet for dogs/cats to check it?

Thanks, I will dig up my old 10G and set it up for now.