General Care Discussion :: a couple of things

[jamie]

1. I bought Dandelion leaves and shredded it up into dollar coin sized pieces, but when I put it in the water it to shrinks and my RES don't eat it.
Do I have to shred up romaine lettuce or things like that if they are hatchlings? Should I soak the hard pellets before I feed to them also?

2. One of the turtles seems to be shedding a lot ever since I put in the underwater heater (it is between 78-80 degrees and yes they are hatchlings not sure exactly how big though). Is this bad?

3. I read a little bit about RI on here. I have seen my turtles burp up bubbles (I think that was one of the symptoms?) and I'm not sure but I think one or both may have spitting up their food lately because I see balls of junk with pellets in them on the bottom of the tank.

[cam722]

1. I'm not sure I've ever seen dandelion leaves shrink. I just always left mine in whole and they'd nibble off it. Or use them to float around the tank there should be no need to soak the pellets either. Are you using reptomin baby pellets?

2. Maybe they are just going through a growth spurt. If it continues for an extended period of time, you may want to lower the water temp a bit.

3. It's not so much burping bubbles, but more like snot bubbles when out of the water I believe. I've never dealt with this so someone else will have to help out As for the spitting up junk... how much do you feed them? Maybe they are being overfed and they are throwing up the excess?

[jamie]

1. I am using "Nutrafin: Turtle Gammarus Food, Complete Food For All Turtles"

3. I have been feeding them 2 pellets each and watching to make sure both of them eat.

[Andrew7769]

sometimes my turts willlet out a few air bubbles but as long as there are no other symptoms i wouldent be to worried...

[industrial_girl_2000]

1. I bought Dandelion leaves and shredded it up into dollar coin sized pieces, but when I put it in the water it to shrinks and my RES don't eat it.
Do I have to shred up romaine lettuce or things like that if they are hatchlings? Should I soak the hard pellets before I feed to them also?

2. One of the turtles seems to be shedding a lot ever since I put in the underwater heater (it is between 78-80 degrees and yes they are hatchlings not sure exactly how big though). Is this bad?

3. I read a little bit about RI on here. I have seen my turtles burp up bubbles (I think that was one of the symptoms?) and I'm not sure but I think one or both may have spitting up their food lately because I see balls of junk with pellets in them on the bottom of the tank.

1.) just remove the hard white vein pieces from the lettuce & let the kids just nip at the green leaves. By the time you remove the white hard veins, the lettuce will be small enough for them to handle, one bite at a time. They will leave cute little bite marks in the lettuce leaves!

2.) I had this problem before too. Just turn the heat down a bit....maybe around 76 & the skin shedding will be lessened.

3.) Turtles do sometimes spit up food if you overfeed them. Give them 1/2 the amount you normally do (during a 1 week period) and see if they are still spitting up. In regards to RI, if they are "gasping for air" and opening their mouths a lot above water, that is reason for concern. Difference between a yawn & RI is that a turtle yawn does not make noise. When they open their mouth for RI, there is a wind-rush noise (you can hear the breathing).