my turtle wont eat - All Turtles Forum (2024)

I\'ve been doing some research and I have a feeling the turtle isn\'t eating because I dont have a heater. I have had the turtle for about 3 months and its small (the shell is about 1.5 inches in diameter). I had two but my roommate found the other one dead one day...he wouldnt move off of the basking rock and had stopped eating, maybe he was sick...but back to my LIVING, NONEATING turtle...I have gravel in a 10 gallon tank with a couple of medium sized basking rocks, a duetto filter (which I just read is supposedly \"inadequate\" for turtles?), and my dad got a couple of light bulbs for basking (one is a 60W \"daylight lamp\" by Exo Terra and the other is dark red when plugged in...i dont know where that box went). I\'ve tried feeding my turtle cooked chicken, nutrafin floating pellets (which it used to eat), \"Zoo Med\'s Turtle Treat\" (which smells fishy and it ate it used to eat about two months ago), and \"Nature Zone Aquatic Turtle Bites.\" My dad went crazy buying turtle food for it...

If you need anymore info to give me any sort of help, just let me know! Thanks so much, I hope I can get him devouring food again!

does he bask all day long? is he acting lethargic?

i guess is that he\'s probably got a respiratory infection. get a heater with a thermostat (about $15 at a pet store) and a thermometer. keep his temp between 82º and 84º. because turtles are cold blooded .. they depend on the water to keep them warm. when hatchlings are sick they need to be in warm water (sort of like when we\'re sick, our body gives us a fever to relieve our sickness). try raising his temperature and see if this helps.

if he\'s coughing or sneezing, he needs to get to a vet immediately. if he\'s opening his mouth .. not a good sign.

thanks everyone for all your suggestions! I\'m going to hit up a pet store tomorrow and see what I can find for the lil guy.

Also: What type of filters do people have in their aquariums? and...I have waste degrader solution that I bought at the pet store and I was wondering if anyone else uses that. oh, and one more question: how often do you usually clean the tank?

I don\'t exactly know what kind of filter I am using, it\'s one of those hang filters and I think it is for a 10 gallon tank, I actually need a bigger one, or another one.

The water in the tank should be cleaned at the very least once a week, remember that the water that your turtle swims in is also the water that he drinks and nobody likes to drink his/her own pee and poop, although, turtles have been known to eat their own poop:D

i have a whisper filter. i think it\'s made by tetra. i got it for $10 at walmart and it works perfectly fine. except, i do wish i would have bought the slightly bigger one that only cost $10 more. get a filter that is for twice the size your tank is. turtles are dirty!

mine just sticks to the side of the tank and it will work with only 2 inches of water in the tank. of course i have a lot more water than that, but it\'s convienent because i don\'t have to fill the tank up to the top.

i would go to petsmart or something like that. i got my filter at walmart only because it was the closest thing to me at the time and it\'s a super walmart so they have an extensive pet section. i got my heater at petsmart. (it was $15)

good luck!