Help for new baby please
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Hi everyone, thanks for letting me join your group – it will be really good to be in contact with other terrapin owners. I live in the Canary Islands and bought my first terrapin here about 3 months ago. His lives in a large, fairly deep plastic tray with a floating piece of wood for basking. Because of our warm climate I have been told that he doesn’t need extra heating – he is on a sunny balcony and he seems quite happy and to be feeding and growing well. Yesterday, however, I decided to buy him a friend but when I got to the pet shop all they had was one tiny terrapin, about 1.5 inches. Even the assistant said he was very small but in good health and with good care should be OK. Well I thought he seemed quite alert in the shop but since we have been at home he just wants to lie on the basking wood and if I put him in the water he swims frantically against the side until he would just wear himself out. When I put him back on the wood after one of these bouts he just lay there with his head on the wood and eyes closed, totally exhausted. I tried him with some dried shrimp but he hasn’t eaten anything so far. His shell is a little bit soft – is that normal because of his size? I have started adding vitamin and calcium drops to the water in the hope that he will get some nourishment. Sorry to land all this on you with my first post but I am quite worried that if I don’t do the right thing now he may not survive Thanks for any advice Janine
Hi Janine, Is your first dbt much bigger than the new one? Maybe the new one is scared . . . mine bit each other a lot when I first put them together but they were pretty big already (3-4″ shell). Anyway, there are lots of experts here that I am sure will give you good advice, but I would say anyway not to let him get dehydrated, so if he really won’t get in the water himself, just put him somewhere every day (like, in a tupperware full of water) so that he has to swim around and stay wet for a while. Maybe also if he is alone he will be less freaked out. You might also try giving him an underwater place to hide, like plastic plants or something. You mentioned the “tank” is out in the sun . . . have they got some shade as well? About the eating, my second dbt was really tiny and wouldn’t eat anything for a long time. After trying pellets, dried and frozen krill and brine shrimp, and raw fish from the grocery store, I finally gave him some raw hamburger. I know it’s weird but he ate it, and wouldn’t eat anything else for a long time. It was gross, and I had to stand there near his feeding tank (tupperware) and pick it out as soon as he was done – yuck – but he grew like crazy and now is just like his brother – a giant pig that will eat anything that stays still long enough. There is also something I heard about dbts having an attached egg sack to feed on when they are born, and they have to finish everything in it and it has to drop off, and then they can start eating other stuff. I don’t know anything about this – but if yours is really REALLY young maybe it is still on him? I’m pretty sure you are not supposed to knock it off, if it is. Good luck with your new friends! NicoleJanine
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