Reptile & Amphibian Forums

somebody gave me a concentric diamond back terrapin that they rescued from a chinatown fish market about 2 weeks ago. She is about 9" long and looks healthy enough... other than a few scabs on her feet that im treating with antibacterial medicine, and a few tiny spots of shell rot that im treating also.... But she refuses to eat. shes got good weight on her, so im not too worried yet, but ive tried feeding her a variety of foods. turtle sticks, frozen krill, fresh mussels (broken shell for easier access), live guppies, live minnows. I dont know what else to try. Any suggestions? I know im not supposed to release her back into the wild, but i dont want her to die because she wont eat. thanks for any help!!

Victor

Do you have an underwater hide area for her? Artificial silk plants work well for hide areas, in or out of water.

Also, make sure you aren't trying to feed her too close to the time of medicating her.

Have you tried superworms, earthworms, cooked shrimp, or greens? It might sound odd, but I have a refugee at home right now, and the first thing she ate was red leaf lettuce!

Do you have a scale at home that can accurately measure her weight, to see if she's loosing weight significantly? Two weeks is not a long time to go without food, especially in a stressful situation. Also, palpate her to check for eggs, just in case.

Katrina
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1.2 Eastern Muds - Fred, Ethel, Edith
0.1 Iguana - Tiffel
0.1 Bearded Dragon - Foster
Foster turtles: More than I'd like the husband to know about.

You might try brine shrimp cubes. They drive my DBT nuts! Even dry he smells them and when they go in the tank he devours them immediately.

Good luck,

Walt

there can be many underlying health issues which may be causing her to refuse food. Or she may simply be adjusting to captivity. Where are you located? If you cannot get her to eat releasing her is not an option. Please contact me privately especially if you are in the New York area. If things get dire we can get her to a person skilled in rehabbing Diamond backs.

Steve

If your DBT does not eat any of the aformentioned foods from the previous posts, you may want to try raw (still shelled) shrimp to entice her to eat. This is one of the primary staples in their wild diet. You can buy these from fishmarkets, and keep them frozen in your freezer for weeks at a time, till the supply is exhausted. Often times, wild caught diamondbacks are extremely picky when it comes to meal time. 10 years ago I had an adult female who would eat absolutely nothing but full sized shrimp. She was a fairly expensive turtle none the less. Hopefully you could get her weened off this food though. Also, the reason I say (still shelled) is because this is how this wild caught DBT would naturally eat the shrimp. Because the terrapin will tear the exoskeleton off, feed her in a separate container than her primary tank. The benefit of eating shrimp with the shell still intact is that its rigidity helps keep the DBT's beak in check from becoming overgrown which could lead to dietary problems down the road.
Hope this helps. We at the DTWG (Diamondback Terrapin Working Group) are taking steps to ensure wild caught terrapins never end up in the fishmarkets again. Thanks for doing your part to help at least one poor victim.

Yeah, it's important you freeze them REALLY cold. This will kill most (but probably not all) of the parasites in the shrimp.

Sorry all you sushi lovers, but my wife is a biologist, and I know too much about parasitology from helping her study for exams...

Walt