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maybe someone can help me here with my problem. Ive bought this basking plank from a company called Zoo Med. It's a foamy kind of thing, and it has four suction cups to hold it up on the site of the tank. Well my little friend have been really annoying me lately. they’ve been chewing the thing apart, its almost completely bitten through one part that has the whole which goes along side the metal bar.

I guess my questions are, how do I stop it from eating it and is it harmful to them. i would assume Zoo Med wouldn’t supply their customers with something that’s harmful to their turtles. I cant afford to keep buying new ones all the time for them to chew up again. Thanks.

The product can be found here:

https://www.petco.com/Shop/Product.aspx ... enemerch=1

any help please

I think if the turtles are eating the dock that it means they are lacking calcium or a vitamin. Do you have any cuttlebone that you are feeding them?

I don't know if the dock is toxic or not. For now though I would take it out and only put the dock in when you can watch them since I honestly don't know the answer though I would think if they are eating the dock that much it may cause them to have an impaction which could lead to problems.

well i had a calcium sized turtle once. u just place it in the water and it gives off the calcium. should i buy those again? thing is this is pretty recent. they just trash the thing... so now i had to raise the filter to give them a basking area. turtles are weird creatures. lol

I know others have this problem too. I personally didn't with the zoo med dock but they'd try to eat their cork bark so I ended up taking it out. Try what daredevilgirl said and give them cuttlebone to see if that's not the problem. I'd not use those calcium turtles, just try the cuttlebone for now.. just take off the hard backing.

Those calcium turtles don't cut it. They don't really do anything. With raising the filter still make sure they can't get out and they may not bask on it as they can feel the vibrations coming off of it.

Go to the store and get some cuttlebone, it'll be in the bird section. Take off the hard backing as the turtles cannot digest it, and cut the cuttlebone into bite size pieces or a little larger and put them in the tank. They may sink or float either is fine.

Since your turtles may not bask they will be ok for a few days, just get another dock as that one may cause you problems in the future, so get one that is intact, and after you let them have some cuttlebone for about a day or two put the new dock in. Then see if they are eating the dock after the cuttlebone has been introduced.

Also try feeding them some carrots, that will help too.

Here I did some searching for you

http://www.redearslider.com/forum/viewt ... ating+dock

http://www.redearslider.com/forum/viewt ... ating+dock

thanks daredevil girl. u rock. ill look into getting the cuttlebone. i let you know how it works out.

I didn't know that turtle would know that they are lacking certain food source by trying to find something to compensate with it, this is amazing. I feed my turtle oral calcium everyday and cuttlebone too, so I didn't see him bite on the dock at all(he only try to bite those bubbles underneath the dock). Wouldn't it be neat that they made a turtle dock that is edible and made of calcium?

lol lets hope they make it really cheap. id be into that idea

Those turtle shaped things aren't for the food kind of calcium, they only have the sulfa kind of calcium. And cuttlebone is way cheaper anyway.

ok well i picked up two of them for a dollar each. they havent touched it yet though. they look at it, but theyre not munching on it. the people at the pet store told me to put rocks to hold the bone down. can i leave it just floating in the water?

After removing the hard backing on the cuttlebone (scrape it off with a knife), just break it into smaller head size or bite size pieces and let a couple of pieces float in the water. When they are gone, just add more.

Yes, Glencoe, you can just let it float in the tank. Sometimes it sinks to the bottom and the turtles will still get it, but they seem to prefer it floating..

awesome thanks. i tried braking it up, so we'll see how that works for them.