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How do you get your RES to eat cuttlebone? Also as a side question she always lets it fill up with water than it sinks to the bottom. When it does this I powder it in my fingers and put the powder back in the water. It just kinda dissolves in the water. Is this kinda good because it is like supplementing the water so when she drinks it she is taking some in, or is it probably not enough to matter?

Turtles will eat cuttlebone when they need it, so having it constantly available is the best option. When it gets too soggy, you can take it out and put a new piece in. Some turtles like the whole big cuttlebone, mine prefers just a head-sized munchable piece. As for the powder, that will just make your water "hard" and cause calcium buildup on the sides of your tank and filter tubing. I wouldn't recommend powdering it if you can help it. She's not receiving enough benefit from that.

Rather than just putting the powder in the water, hang on to it and occasionally moisten some pellets (or other food), sprinkle the powder on them (or roll them in the powder), let them dry and feed them to your turtle. If you don't want to wait for them to dry, you can handfeed them to your turtle---he'd get more of the calcium than drinking it in the water.

If a lot of the pieces are winding up on the bottom, you could take them out and let them thoroughly dry. They'll float again, but not for very long.

Thanks for your responses!

I think if you want and your turtle won't eat the cuttlebone, you can just dust all the food. It's an alternative, and good way to sneak in the calcium!

dusting wont do anything since it will just float off. if your going to try that alternative though you could try and see if she will eat gut loaded crickets. Rolo acctually doesnt like crickets so luckily she discovered the joy of cuttle bone after almost seven months of her not touching it. now she cant get enough of the stuff. just keep trying. she'll figure it out one day.

i tried the food dusting before. right when it the water it all came off so it was just a waste of money

As I suggested, either coat moist pellets with the powder and handfeed them to your turtle or, let the coated pellets dry and give them to your turtle. Either way, your turtle would get more calcium than just dusting the food and putting it in the water.

I put a piece of cuttlebone in the turtle tank and my female RES ignored it (almost two weeks). Then one day, she started nibbling on it and almost appeared to play around with it. She occasionally took bites when she needed some calciium. I went through two pieces which lasted almost about a month and one-half.

My turtle prefers his chucks of cuttlebone to be attached to the side of the tank with a veggie clip.