Hunger Strike – please help!!!!
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Hi all! My [baby] turtle has not been acting normal during the last 2 days, he refuses to eat and never goes into the water anymore, even when I put him in he climbs out immediately. He (Mac) has always been very active and always the first to take food from me. Could it be that he is suffering from depression? He has occasionally been bitten on the foot by the female turtles, but I am not sure to what extent this has happened. Is he possibly ill? All the others who share the same water (there are 2 connected tanks with filtration systems etc) are 100% fine. Please if anyone can help I would really appreciate it. I need it! Thanks everyone! regards terence
I would recommend separating him for now until you can determine what is going on. I’ve noticed that once one of my hatchlings gets a severe bite from normal fighting over food or just becomes “picked on” for some reason that they refuse to get back in the water. This is especially true of those that get a tail bitten. Once a part of the tail gets nipped off, they stay out of the water to avoid further bites of the wound. I’ve had a couple like this that I have separated and they’ve matured fine once isolated from more aggressive tank mates. What sizes are the turtles in the tanks? Is the baby a lot smaller than the females biting him? Since you didn’t mention any visible wounds, perhaps the baby does have some other health problem and that weakness is attracting more aggressive behavior from tank mates? Separating him into a heated tank (80 to 85 degrees) would give him a chance to be observed separately so you can get a better idea of the causes. Todd Terence wrote:
Terence, My first question would be what are the sizes of the other turtles in this setup? If your baby is much smaller than the other turtles that could be the problem. I won’t even keep babies with much size difference with each other as the little ones seem to get picked on. One of my babies was being picked on so much by babies only about three weeks older than it that I had to separate him because he wouldn’t eat for fear of being bitten. Vickie
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