Habitat - Indoor :: not sure if my turtles are happy..

[sofall]

ok so im not sure if anyone remembers but i had gravel in and low water level. so i finally removed the gravel and put the water as high as possible without covering the filter. so its about more than half way up. i went outside and found two bigger rocks so they can have something to get on top of. i feel like they are having difficulty adjusting.. how long do you guys think it will take them to adjust? they have a lot more swimming room now and i hope it makes them happy..

also i have the turtle dock (picture below) and they keep trying to swim behind the black bars and i feel like they are going to get stuck.. any suggestions?



thank you!

cassie

[SpotsMama]

Those docks are really good but they can be dangerous. All the turtles like to squeeze into tight places for some reason - security? - and they can get stuck behind the platform and drown. I read someone's post on here who lost a little turtle that way. When Spot was little he used to do the same thing. I took off the bottom two suckers and it helped a lot since then the plastic frame could move more easily and he could escape. He never really had a near miss with it.

Since Spot's bigger now he's plenty strong enough to get himself loose from the platform and besides, he doesn't want to hide back there anymore

[industrial_girl_2000]

also i have the turtle dock (picture below) and they keep trying to swim behind the black bars and i feel like they are going to get stuck.. any suggestions?
cassie

I would find something to put between the bars & the tank to fill in the space so the turtles don't get stuck. Maybe some scrap pieces of acrylic glued onto the black bars with silicon or something like that (other stuff could work too, I'm just trying to think of stuff I would try first that the turtles wouldn't try *eating*). I would take the dock to the hardware store or one of those Home Depot/Lowes kind of stores (or even a pet store) & ask them for some suggestions or just look around yourself for ideas!

[megcornell]

I have one of those for Leo and I adjusted the support bars so that when the dock is floating, the only part of the bars that are in the water are the suction cups and a very little amount of bar, its a really short length that's submerged so that Leo can't possibly fit between the portion underwater. He's not exactly the wisest guy haha, but I figure this way when he tries to cram his fat shell between the bars, worst case he'll get stuck above water where he can wait angrily for me to come home and rescue him rather than drown... luckily he hasn't managed to get stuck yet, knock on wood

[Andrew7769]

i have one and george always knocks the bottom 2 suction cups off, he actually will sit there with is arm hooked around the bottom bar and hangs out i have 2 get a pic its hilarious

[Shavannah]

I figure this way when he tries to cram his fat shell between the bars, worst case he'll get stuck above water where he can wait angrily for me to come home and rescue him rather than drown...

I can picture him 'waiting angrily', lol, like in the movie 'The Money Pit' when Tom Hanks was stuck in a hole in the floor, LOL!

[sofall]

lol thanks guys i will try and figure something out..