Help! Tail Biting drving me nuts.
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I’m sure some of you have seen this behavior before. I have 4 yearlings, 2 males (a Texas and Cheasapeake) and 2 females (both Texans). One of the females seems to have a penchant for niping at the tails of the other 3. Every time I see it happen I try to keep it from happening, but it seems like for the last few weeks, the other 3 have always had some sort of injury to their tails because of this. Today I came home to find a rather large bit bitten clean off the tail of my other female, and I’m not sure how long ago it was, but the tail is still bleeding. I have a couple of questions I’d like some advise on. 1. Should I isolate her while her tail recovers? Will I need to get anything to help it recover? 2. Should I seek out a vet? There’s only 1 I know of in this area, and I have seen him once before for my terps. Even though he was a member of ARAV, I felt like I knew as much about terps as he did, plus it cost a pretty penny. I want to do everything I can to make sure she stays healthy, but I’d like to avoid that route if I can. 3. Is there something I can do to stop this behavior? My wife wonders if being fed just once a day now, which they have been for some time, is causing the aggression due to hunger. I try to make sure they get plenty of food and have enough time to eat themselves full every day, so I have my doubts about that. I have 5 other terps, northerns, and none of them has ever been aggressive like this against other terrapins. Any advice or suggestions are greatly appreciated.
Your best bet is to isolate the biter since she may have acquired a taste for terrapin tail. At first, I thought it might be a territorial response but such behavior is normally puncuated with foot biting and not tail biting. There’s not a whole lot that one can do to discourage such behavior besides hoping that separation and time makes her lose her appetite for her tankmates’ tails. You can feed her all you want, but once all the food is eaten up, she’ll just be hungry for a snack again. You should also consider isolating the victim as well as her other tankmates might find the wounded stump appetizing as well. Treat the wound topically with Betadine, Nolvasan, or even Neosporin. Keep her out of water except to feed and drink until the wound is scabbed over. You should not have to consult a vet unless the wound does not begin to heal. All the best. -Chun — In diamondbackterrapins@yahoogroups.com, “apshaiterp”
I have also found that when you have tail or foot bitters that even when the victim is totally healed and has been apart for many weeks the bitters will go right back to the spot as if it was still an open wound. It seems that once a bitter always a bitter. Vickie —–Original Message—–From: Stephen Chew
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