Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi. I have a red eared slider, about 5 inches or a little more, but she is a nice size. I had in with her bark that fit between the glass and she loved climbing up on it, and the other piece I put on top of it. Wll, after a while, it got water logged and started to shrink a bit or something, and it keeps falling down now. So I bought the Zoo Med turtle dock, size medium, as I have yet to upgrade to a tank the large would fit in....yet there is still plenty of space in my tank (30 gallon) for the turtle....that should give you a better idea of how she is not too large yet...but she will be soon. Well, she refuses to go on top of it. She tried, and slid off, and I am not even sure it will hold her without sinking. Does anyone else have this product? How can I get the turtle to at least attempt to go on it. It has been two days now with no basking....and that worries me a bit. Any advise is appreciated. Thank you.

Try siliconing cross stitch screen to the top of it. That is what I made my basking area out of.

You can get it by the sheet at W@lm@rt in the crafts section. Its like .99/sheet or something.

Voila!! instant traction

It looks like this

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iturnrocks.com

I got one less than 2 weeks ago for my 5 inch western painted. He's in his new 55 gallon so I ordered the large sized dock.
He freaked out at first, so I put him on it & he jumped off immediately. I waited a half hour or so & I scooted him onto it. I scooted him on by using the ramp to show him how to use it & then set him on top. He didn't stay long but he didn't jump off immediately. Each time I showed him he stayed on it for a longer period of time.
In the past I've taught a puppy how to use steps by putting it's front legs up then lifting the rest of the puppy up & kept doing it until the puppy got the picture. I kind of thought why not try the same thing for the turtle with his new ramp? That's what I did, I treated him like he's a puppy & tried to teach him how to use this dock. Whatever... something worked because by nightfall my turtle had gotten up onto the dock by himself. He loves that thing now, he's on it for hours every day.

I was at my vet's before I ordered this dock. Every time she gets a new turtle or a turtle patient she sends me to the back to look at it. Right before I ordered mine she sent me to the back room to see a large diamond back terrapin, it was basking on the large sized dock. I thought if a large DBT can sit on it then my little painted can too. That's when I ordered it.

I think getting them to actually use it is just a matter of them getting used to something new.
Good luck I hope your turtle will learn soon that this is a good thing.
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PHRatz

Thank you both. If he keeps sliding off of it, maybe I will try that stuff shown in the picture....

I have been putting pieces of food on top, along with a piece of his bark. I cme back, and the food is gone. So he goes up there to get it, but won't stay up there. And since this always happens when I am not looking, I can't tell if he sinks on this dock or not. I read a couple reviews...most good, but one guy said his turtle was too heavy for it as well. My turtle is probably about 5 inches as well, so he may be too heavy for the medium dock I know when he goes to climb on to it, it goes under water, but then again, he is putting more weight on it when he is attemtping to climb. He gets part way up, and then slides off in to the water. But he can do it! Right now, I have his old bark underneath of it to keep it more sturdy. I was hoping if he had some familiar stuff around him, he would start using it and then I could remove the familiar stuff. Or do you recommend I remove that now, and just try to train him? Who knew a turtle could be so stubborn!!

Of course, it took one day for you. We are now on day 3........I have a feeling he gets on it when we are not home. When we are home, if he starts to go up to look for food on it, he always looks at us first, as he seems sneaky like that. with the bark, it would stay up all night, and when he saw me, I swore he would purposely knock it over to get me to come fix it, hoping I would give him some food while he was there. Because when we are not home, he always left it up. Go figure.

The reason food on the basking spot doesnt work is because turtles need to be in the water to swallow properly.

Perhaps an adjustment to your turtles Day/Night cycle might help. I use a plugin timer I got at W@lm@rt. I believe it is sold for lamps or something. I set the light to come on at 6 am and turn off at 8 pm. I find that once the turtle gets used to a regular on/off program, you will see him taking advantage of the last 30 minutes of basking before the light goes off.

The other thing about basking. Most turtles will head for the water when they think someone is close. The best way to know that your turtle is basking is to listen for the splash when you enter the room
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iturnrocks.com

Thanks! I am well aware that he needs to swallow under water. The point of the food is to let him know that he CAN get up there on his own. I figure if he does it enough, maybe he will get the picture. Not only that, but when he does go up there for the food, it is a reminder that his heat lamp is beaming down on that, so I hope he realizes he should now come up on this thing to bask (which he used to do all the time).

I have had him for a few years now and he is no longer afraid of me. He is a very aggresive turtle and will eat your finger if he could (he has also eaten two other turtles...completely in half so he now lives alone...I know this in uncommon, and the one turtle he lived with for a year before doing this). There are plenty of hiding spots and stuff in the tank...he just really wanted those other turtles. You can imagine my surprise when I came home from work that day, but...after all of that, I still love him

Anyway, on the bark I had, he used to jump off when I entered the room when I first got him, but the tank is in our TV room, so he got very used to us being there, and would sleep up there and not care that we walked by or anything. Maybe it is because this is new that I need to give him time to adjust???

Anyway, thanks for the tips... I am going to conitnue to try and "train" him to go up there. But is it bad for him to be in the water for too long of a time? I mean, is there a point where I should take this thing out and somehow rig the bark I used to have to stay up in the tank without falling in the water?

Thanks! I appreciate all your help. It is nice to hear the views of other turtle owners.

>>I have had him for a few years now and he is no longer afraid of me. He is a very aggresive turtle and will eat your finger if he could (he has also eaten two other turtles...completely in half so he now lives alone...I know this in uncommon, and the one turtle he lived with for a year before doing this). There are plenty of hiding spots and stuff in the tank...he just really wanted those other turtles. You can imagine my surprise when I came home from work that day, but...after all of that, I still love him

Good for you! What he did is a shame but he was being what he is, he was doing what they do. Too many people would've gotten rid of him and said he's mean for killing the others but that wouldn't have been fair to him. He's not mean, he's being an animal. Humans are mean - animals sometimes aggressively defend themselves, their home, food, or young ...that's not being mean, it's being what they are.
He deserves to have his home, so it's nice to see that you didn't punish him by getting rid of him just because he was behaving like a turtle.

>>
>>Anyway, on the bark I had, he used to jump off when I entered the room when I first got him, but the tank is in our TV room, so he got very used to us being there, and would sleep up there and not care that we walked by or anything. Maybe it is because this is new that I need to give him time to adjust???

That's what I think, he needs time to adjust to a big change in his life. Our painted used to jump in the water if someone walked into his room suddenly. I learned to start talking before entering the room, once I did that he stopped diving into the water just because I was walking into the room. I realized that if I quietly appeared out of nowhere it scared him, but if he can hear me coming in before I get there, he's fine with that.

Our turtle moved to a new glass tank, got the turtle dock all within the last month. I expected him to sulk and be unhappy because in the past changes have upset him. My experience with him getting upset with changes are why I think the changes you've made have upset your turtle, sometimes they really do need an adjustment period.

>>Anyway, thanks for the tips... I am going to conitnue to try and "train" him to go up there. But is it bad for him to be in the water for too long of a time? I mean, is there a point where I should take this thing out and somehow rig the bark I used to have to stay up in the tank without falling in the water?
>>

Try to spy on him & see if he's basking when he thinks he's alone. I have a feeling that he'll get tired of swimming around & eventually use the dock. In my experience they usually get used to something new by the time a week has passed, I hope yours will. If he doesn't by the time a couple of weeks have passed, I don't know if he were mine & he didn't use it by 2 weeks, I might would try rigging up the old bark.
Good luck!
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PHRatz

Thanks! To be compltely honest, the thought of getting rid of him after he ate the other turtles went through my mind. But I just couldn't do it. I always wanted turtles, and I will admit, I miss the other two a lot, and always wanted to have more than one...but I think what he did actually gives him some character...and an interesting story...and I just couldn't imagine giving him up just for acting as he normally would in the wild. So thanks for the pat on the back!!

Well, last night, and this morning, I saw him sneak up on the dock...which I rigged with the bark to stay up...as I fear he may sink the dock alone, but he didn't stay up there more than a minute. Kind of walked on it, to the other end and then jumped off. But he is started to realize what it is and what it is for...I think. Once he gets used to it, I may remove the bark that is keeping it up and see if he will go on it without that there. I think his prioblem is that it is a different material than what he is used too. But like you said, after 2 weeks, I may go back tot he way things were. I will let you know!!

Thanks again!

I have the same issues with my 5 inch RES. Everytime I change his stuff around and make it different for him he hides out and doesn't bask. It takes him a few days to come around. He'll stop eating too, even with new fish in the tank. I don't worry anymore because I know he'll be alright. I've tried the turtle dock too but he was too heavy for it and I know he likes to be completely out of the water and stretch his feet out fully when he basks. So I ended up getting a big fake log that he can hide underneath in the water or bask on top. It takes up more room than I'd like but it's big enough for him and it works. I'm waiting to see if he's going to start eating the plants I've put in there. He must be going at it during the night because I've seen some small pieces floating in the morning. Unless the fish eat it too, I don't know. Good luck with yours, I bet he'll come around and get back to basking. M

Thanks! I rigged the turtle dock so it would not sink if he gets on top of it, but he still is not interested. My RES also likes to get completely out of the water and stretch his feet out. Sucks that I paid for this thing he isn't even using, but at least it was only $15. Sometimes you have to pay a little to learn whether or not something will work. I think I may start looking for new bark to put in there (which used to wedge between the glass and allowed him to come completely out of the water...with a second piece on top letting him get closer to the heat source). But, I am going to give it another week before I start making changes again.

As for your plants, I put plants in my tank as well, and within an hour they are torn to bits. I bet your turtle is eating them. If you find dandelion leaves outside during the summer, pick them and boil them for a few minutes to get any germs off of them and then put them in the tank. They are my RES favorite!!

Thanks again! And again, I will keep everyone posted.

>>Thanks! To be compltely honest, the thought of getting rid of him after he ate the other turtles went through my mind. But I just couldn't do it. I always wanted turtles, and I will admit, I miss the other two a lot, and always wanted to have more than one...but I think what he did actually gives him some character...and an interesting story...and I just couldn't imagine giving him up just for acting as he normally would in the wild. So thanks for the pat on the back!!

You're welcome but you deserve it. I hear too many stupid stories about why a pet has to be dumped. Behaving as they do isn't a good reason to get rid of them. You couldn't do that to your turtle, that's wonderful!
I have a lot of abandoned pets & the reasons why some of them were tossed aside like they're less important than things are just stupid reasons.. but for most of them I don't even know what the story is because we just found them.

The latest story I heard about getting rid of RES just really got to me though.
I got a great deal on my 55 gallon tank for my painted through my vet. She ordered it from her vet supplier so she got a much lower price for me than the pet store could.
THEN I found out after that that she was expecting 2 RES to come into her possession because their owner said they'd outgrown their tank.
I said to the vet "then buy another tank!"
She said "yeah exactly" but no the owner is getting rid of them instead, only because they'd outgrown the one they're in & the owner is too cheap to upgrade.
The vet told me this after I'd bought my tank from her.. what a contrast that must've been for the vet. She's got one client dumping two RES on her because of their tank & the other client buying a new tank from her because I would never part with my turtle, he's part of the family.
I would NEVER even consider getting rid of my little guy because he needed a new tank.

Anyway I hope your little guy sneaks up on it more often & learns to love it. I'm kind of thinking that my painted loves his new dock because it's much larger than his old stack of rocks was. He's got a lot more room to sprawl out under the basking light now.
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PHRatz

That is awful!!! Now I am in NJ, and in China Town in NY, they sell baby RES for like $5. They have a load in a small bowl and tell people they will not get much bigger....or that they will only grow according to the size of the tank they are in. The same goes down the shore with baby iguanas!!!! I think people who buy animals like this really need to be educated before doing so. I learned the hard way by buying a snake with no knowledge and he was so sick it cost me $400 in the first month to get him healthy. Everyone told me to return him, but I already fell in love with him, so it was worth the money. Same with my cat who had cardiomyopathy. It cost a fortune to get rid of her heart murmor and my mother insisted I take her back. My husband and I just couldn't do it. Iused to work at a pet store and I took home every animal people brought in because they coulnd't care for them anymore. I don;'t work there anymore...and it is a good thing because I could only imagine how many pets I would have. It is nice to hear someone else feels the same way about all these pets.

Yes, my next upgrade is to a 55 gallon, and then a 75 gallon. If my parents ever get rid of their salt water tank, I will inquire a 180 gallon!!! But then I would want more than one turtle....and I don't think that will ever happen as long as Dopey is alive. Yes, his name is Dopey. As I wrote this he climbed on his new dock, but he already got down. I think he needs to feel it out a little more.

Question about their food though. He has been eating one kind of food, with some others mixed in once in a while (plus fruits, veggies, plants and live fish). I was just at the store to get a new basking lamp, and since he needed new food, I bought two kinds. One I just liked the looks of (lol) and then I was going to get either the same kind he has now, HBH (which is high in D3 and calcium) or the Zoo Med brand that was the same price, but had more in it. I went with the Zoo Med one for the value, as the ingrediants were very similar (The D3 and calcium fell in the same spot in the ingrediants list). I assume this okay, right? I mean, they don't NEED the same exact food every single time...right? Might seem like a crazy question....but figured I would ask since you are also an experienced turtle owner. I also want to make sure he is still getting enough calcium, no matter which food I use...and yes, I have the special light in additional to the heat lamp. Thanks again!

And hey, why don't you take those two RES from your vet

I give my RES reptomin sticks in the morning, then more sticks, crickets and mealworms in the afternoon. He eats all that, and is probably nibbling the plants like you say. The two fish have dodged his attacks so far, probably hiding out in the plants. I'll definitely try the dandelion greens when the snow is gone. I'll have plenty coming up in the lawn!

My RES eats crickets too!! I have a little cricket container to keep them in for my lizards and frog...but sometimes they get out. And when I find one roaming around downstairs, they go straight for the turtle tank! My RES also used to eat all the fish in the tank and leave one to live with until I got another batch of fish...now, all the fish are gone in a matter of minutes. Great excersize for a turtle. We are expecting a big snow storm today....so I know what you mean about waiting for the snow to be gone......lol.

Well, she stayed on it for 40 minutes once I put her new heat lamp in (the bulb died yesterday), and she is on it again right now! Thanks for all the tips!