Habitat - Indoor :: Turtle eating Zoo Med Dock

[dmkolb]

I have a turtle that I can't seem to get to stop eating the large Zoo Med Turtle dock I have in the aquarium. So far about a half square inch has been eaten. I do have a cuttlebone floating in the aquarium that gets eaten to.

So how do I stop the dock from being eating? Is there something I can do to the dock?

[DanielRES1180]

As much as I would like to say to pour hot sauce all over the dock (don't ask) or take your turtle to a pet training school, I would say that the easiest solution is to buy or make another dock that can withstand the turtle biting it. Edging your current dock with something durable and harmless would be another option, though I can't think of materials that fit this description right now.

[dmkolb]

Thanks for the response. I thought about spraying the area that's being eaten with something but not sure what to spray it with that wouldn't hurt the turtle. I guess I could put a small amount of spray on bed liner on it. That would cover the area with a hard rubber but not sure that's the best option at this point.

[megcornell]

Is there any algae on your dock?? I notice my turtle Leo sometimes likes to pick at the algae I have growing on the edges of my floating dock...
I wouldn't put anything on the dock to deter the behavior, you could and probably would unintentionally cause more harm than his chewing habit does. I can't think of anything that would keep him away without being toxic... I think the best bet would be to add something else to occupy him- plants or larger cuttlebone chunks.

[adam85491]

You can switch to the acrylic turtle dock as seen here: http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/p ... 006+113494

[dmkolb]

No algae on the dock. It's only about 2 weeks old. I really like it except for the fact it gets eaten. May have to get a different one. Thanks for the advice.

[pitym]

My turtles eat the zoo med dock too. Huge chunk was missing with the inner stick poking out. I switched to corkbark... they eat that too. Actually caught one biting and trying to yank off by pushing with hands (?) It looked pretty fierce. I also have cuttlebone in the tank so I know what your going through. I now have a Large zoo med dock, I don't think they can get through this one, but we'll see.

Patti

[SpotsMama]

The most common reason for them wanting to snack on their zoo med docks is a lack of calcium. If you don't already do it, why don't you put some pieces of cuttlebone in the tank. That will provide the calcium they need (and also give them something crunchy to chew on, if that matters to them). Maybe then they'll leave the docks alone.

[steve]

I've always been iffy on that calcium analysis. I think cuttlebone just gives them an alternative "snack" source. Just another reason I'm not crazy about those ZooMed docks.

[marisa]

I believe there's something to the desire/need for calcium if they're eating the dock. But if the dock wasn't available, they'd probably be trying to nibble on something else.

[pumpkinsherbet]

my turtles have tried a couple times to nip at the algae off of the basking dock, but never tried eating the dock itself. is that still bad?

[marisa]

Algae won't hurt them. If they took pieces of the dock off when they tried to eat the algae, though, then I'd find another basking dock where that wouldn't happen.

[pumpkinsherbet]

well the basking dock will be taken out once i get my ramp anyway, some time this weekend. no chunks missing.

[industrial_girl_2000]

When I was shopping for a new dock for Sheba a few months back, I looked at the ZooMed dock & wasn't too impressed with it because I knew Sheba would be eating it (light foam texture). I didn't want to take a chance so I went with the clear acrylic one & it has worked out great over the last 5 months.

[pumpkinsherbet]

i don't like the zoomed dock anyway. it's not all that big or special. and besides, i'm thinking of writing a letter to the manufacturers b/c the plastic part with the suction cups... my aeryn got stuck in that twice. i took the bottom suction cups out, it just hangs and i would say that messes with the stability. they need to fix that design.