Reptile & Amphibian Forums

One of my babies is doing fine, he is a healthy avid eater. The other refuses to eat, I've never seen him go for any food. I assumed he was eating the left overs when I wasn't looking but when I took him out to handle him today I realized he had lost a lot of his body mass. The turtle that eats plenty is fleshy, his body appears to fill his shell, whereas the other turtle looks like he has room to spare. I'm worried about him, what could be causing this?

There is no way to tell from your description. First of all, whats your setup like? Do you have the correct temps for the water and basking area? What is the diet you're feeding it like? Do you have UV lighting? Is the turtle being bullied by it's sibling? If all that is OK then it could be a whole host of other problems. Get a stool sample from the animal and have the vet do a fecal exam. It's a good place to start. If that doesn't show anything you have to decide if you want to spend the bucks it will take to do bloodwork etc. Good vets aren't cheap but it's something you should be willing to pay for if you own animals.

Please separate them for a while putting each in their own
set-up. This one may being bullied by the other. I had this
same circumstance so I did the above for a few months and give
the more shy turtle time to get some self esteem and eat plenty
of food and grow strong.

I would try this before he gets too weak from not eating.

Linda