biting
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Hi Everyone, Well, Terrance, my small dbt, is eating now and is much more active! The problem now is, I would like him to live in the new, improved tank with Shelby, but Shelby is much bigger. We did a trial tonight, first putting them together in the bathtub, where they ignored each other or tried to get away from one another. Then we put them both in Shelby’s tank. After about a minute, he swum up behind little Terrance and bit him in the tail! So now I’ve got them separated again, but I really don’t have space for two tanks in the room. I was wondering if anyone had some advice on this. Are turtles maybe territorial? Or did Shelby think that Terrance was food? Do I need to wait until they are closer to the same size? Terrance is only about an inch long (shell) and Shelby has more like a three or four inch shell. Oh-I fed both of them separately before putting them together, so neither should have been hungry. Sorry to ask for help again so soon! Nicole Sad Turtle Mom Do you Yahoo!? The all-new My Yahoo! _Ǖ__ What will yours do?
Hello there, sorry you’re having troubles with your new turtles. I haven’t known them to be really territorial.. But I noticed if you feed your turtles meat, like pinky mice, or any meat, they start turning on other sources of meat in the tank, even each other. And DBTs seem to have this instinct, where they home in on a wound, on a wounded turtle, and bite at it. They also seem to be pretty nippy after being fed. Check the little one for any wounds that maybe attracting the other one to bite at it. Or maybe keep thems eperate for the week you feed them meat, if you feed them meat. Otherwise, maybe just try putting them together at least an hour or two after feeding time. In a message dated 12/8/2004 9:34:45 PM Eastern Standard Time, misstippy999@… writes:
Nicole …with that great a difference in size it is not advised to keep them together until your little one gets much larger. At which point you can again try to keep them together. Larger terrapins will bite little ones. You must be careful to put in terrapins which approximate the same size. Regards, rcftx —————————————————-This mailbox protected from junk email by Matadorfrom MailFrontier, Inc. http://info.mailfrontier.com
I have had a similar experience except the exact opposite. I put my 4 month old in the 160g tank with the 23 year old and the baby bit the old one on the foot and then the tail! The older one didn’t pay him any attention though. I have been introducing them for a couple hours daily in the big tank and that hasn’t happened since. The older one is about 6 1/2 – 7″ (shell only) and the baby is about 3″ (shell only). I’m contemplating leaving the baby overnight tonight for the first time. They seem to get along great, rubbing noses, play with my Placo together, etc. What do you all think?? — rcftx
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