Reptile & Amphibian Forums

One of my friends asked me today if can you trim red eared sliders claws? I haven't heard of doing so, nor could I find any information on it, so I don't think that it is a common practice. However, I don't know very much about aquatic turtles.

I told her that it probably wasn't a good idea, as if you accidently caused them to bleed from the nail then putting the turtle back into water carries a risk of infection.

Thanks,

Sean M
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Current Collection:
1.0 Eastern Fox Snake
0.1 Texas Ratsnake (Leucistic)
1.1 Jungle Carpet Python
0.1 Northern Blue Tongue Skink

Hi there i have heard that if you let them run around on concrete it helps! i have never tried this so don't know if it works!
Good Luck

My painted is male so his front claws are very long. They're supposed to be that way, I wonder if that's what your friend is seeing on his/her turtles? Normal long male nails.

I would never consider trimming his nails but until 6 months ago he's always lived in a tank with a stack of rocks for a basking area. That always kept his nails trimmed.
He's been using a floating dock since he moved into a larger tank 6 months ago. Until I went & looked just this minute I hadn't noticed if his nails are too long.. they aren't.
I have a rough surfaced cave on the bottom of the tank, he sits on that quite a lot, it must be keeping the nails worn down.
I trim my box turtle's nails but that's only because sometimes their nails grow so long it interferes with normal walking, otherwise nobody gets a nail trim.
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PHRatz