General Care Discussion :: Biting basking dock

[Ashley]

My RES is about 4 in. and has recently started biting at his dock and also his rock.
Not just little nibbles, I mean full on gripping and using claws to help out.
I feed him plenty and he even eats a cuttlebone, so I know he's not malnourished.
Possibly just being playful?
I also noticed that he's been drinking a lot more water today than normal.
The dock is a ZooMed basking dock and the rock is a decorative rock that he likes to climb more than the dock.

Here's a video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKWwJqlnZUg

[steve]

Could be that he is just aggressive. My male RES constantly bites everything, so I have to keep his tank relatively bare. He kept biting a resin platform and breaking off pieces. He even chipped his beak a bit from doing so.

[Ranger The Red Ear Slider]

My RES likes to eat his turtle dock just like yours he uses his claws and bites it. It won't kill him or harm him though. Mabye a piece of cuttlebone will help him to chew on that and no the dock and his rock.

[Ashley]

Thanks for the advice!
My boyfriend and I removed the dock and gave it to his nephew,
who has a smaller RES that needed a new one.
Bowser never used that dock much anyway, only climbed the rock.
He still bites at anything in the tank...filter, rock, his own claws.
At least he can't break pieces off the rock.
And as far as calcium, yesterday he ate two chunks of cuttlebone.

[papoopeepoo]

Try offering cuttle bone (with the backing removed). My turtle used to bite at her dock, but I began offering cuttlebone on a regular basis, and she hasn't taken a nibble since then.

[TurtleKeeper48]

Ours bite their basking docks too. Cuttlebone seems to help. I know you said you feed cuttle bone, but how much? Maybe they're wanting more.

But, what I REALLY want to know is, how in the world do you know if, or when, or how much water your turtle drinks?



"I also noticed that he's been drinking a lot more water today than normal."

????????

[TurtleKeeper48]

One more thing... you said you removbed the dock because the turtle didn't use it?

Does this turtle have a basking area of any type right now?

[Ashley]

Yes, he has another rock that he prefers to bask on and is on it several hours a day.
He never really used the Zoomed dock...it was just there for aesthetic purposes once I realized he didn't use it.
I also worried about him getting stuck between the bars that hold it up....he likes to wedge himself between things.

As far as the cuttlebone, I have been putting many chunks in the tank and he has finally started eating it after all of this time.
That seemed to do the trick, as he isn't biting other things in the tank as much.
I used a knife to chip off the hard backing on a fresh cuttlebone so I have plenty more pieces to give him.

Now with the water drinking, I rarely see him drinking water when I watch him, but the day he was biting and eating pieces of the dock he was frequently drinking.
Even while basking, he would stick his head in the water and take a big gulp.

Everything seems normal now.
He doesn't seem to miss the dock, and has been super social and very energetic.

[Ranger The Red Ear Slider]

Thats good that the cuttlebone solved the problem.
My RES eats his cuttlebone now but still swims across his dock and turns around and bites it for a while.