Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My RES is about a year old and has a shell roughly three inches in length. I been feeding him a diet of reptomin turtle sticks, though probably too much. Lately, I switched from baby sticks to the normal turtle sticks.

The problem is, lately my turtle has had some strange-looking black substance coming out of his black hole. It seems like he is defecating, but the dischange is huge and. It pours and and stays outside for a while and then instead of coming all the way out, gets sucked back into the turtle.

I was worried that this was his intestine pouring out, but judging from pictures I've seen, the intestines are more light-colored. I'm still very much worried about this problem though, and would appreciate it if someone could tell me what is wrong. I am hoping it's an easily-remedied case of overfeeding.

Thanks

Does your turtle have long front claws too? That means he's a male. From I've read from this forum, the stuff that comes out of his back end is his penis, and as long as it goes back in it's not a problem when it occurs. I'm definitely not an expert though and have never seen it happen.

As for a remedy for overfeeding, have you tried feeding them fresh vegetables? Your turtle is at a size where you can feed them protein (i.e. sticks, live food, etc) every other day or twice a week. The rest of their diet would constitute mainly of veggies.

Hope this helps. Good luck!

The other poster is right, that is just his penis, that behavior is called fanning.
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Thanks lot for cluing me in. It's very relieving to know. Also, not to be crude, but it also makes me kinda proud to know that my turtle is very much the man.

Thanks lot for cluing me in. It's very relieving to know. Also, not to be crude, but it also makes me kinda proud to know that my turtle is very much the man.

I've seen my turtles doing this too, but it's HUGE--almost as big as the carapace. It looks like a giant black flower. I always assumed that it was the intestines because it always happened after a change in food or after giving them a chunk of banana. Could that giant black thing really be a penis?

Yep, that really is his penis.
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