Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi, I have a 1 year old female RES, she's always been a pig when it comes to eating but for the past month and a half her appitite has dropped and in the last 4 days she's been refusing to eat her turtle sticks all together. All she wants to do is bask ALL day long(more than usual). When she does go into the water she hunts thru the gravel for snails but thats all shes been eating. I've tried hand feeding her crickets(One of her faverate things to eat) and she just sniffed it and turned away. She also doesn't seem to be as active as usual either. I have her in a 30 gal tank with a basking spot(uvb), her water is around 75-78F, has a good filter, the works. Also, friday I noticed she swallowed A small pebble when she tried to eat a snail. Could this be the cause of her not wanting to eat. At the time I didn't think anything of it because she's swallowed pebbles in the past and everything was fine. What could possibly be the problem? If anyone can help me out that would be great!
Thanx, Ricky.

ok first, there shouldnt be any pebbles in there that the turtle can possibly eat...they can choke and die....second, from the symptoms you just said ur turtle has, its obvious that the water is cold or gets too cold at night, and she may possibly have a respitory infection..., this happend to my res too, the key is to raise the temp to 82-85 until the turtle gets better, then make sure the water never gets below 72....take care of this fast, many turtles die from this

I just wanted to say, like the other person, that you really do need to get the pebbles out, ecspecially if she already eats them. I had a turtle eat one, and died within two days. Also, not having the pebbles, will keep your tank cleaner. They arent there, therfore they do not hold everything under them, and it is eaiser for the filter to pick up stuff.

Assuming that the pebble is not causing a blockage or something, your turtle's appetite may have decreased due to the change in season. I have read that some turtles, even when kept indoors, will eat far less during the winter months. I have two RES under two inches who have really cut back on the food since the weather changed. I leave veggies in the tank that they nibble on occassionally but they refuse food sticks and don't even get excited about dried shrimp treats anymore. They behave normally otherwise. If your turtle shows no sign of illness, I wouldn't get too excited about it.

well I Brought up the temps to about 82f and I also took out all pieces of gravel that were small enough to fit in her mouth. I'm not gonna take out all the gravel if I dont need to, plus cleaning out the gravel periodically doesn't bother me. I have seen a change in her behavior since I warmed up the water. She's been more active, more like herself, but still is refusing to eat her sticks. But she still is eating any snail she can find crawling thru the gravel. Could she just be being picky! Also, I live in florida and the weather just started to get colder within the last month-month and a half, same time when this all began so im thinking that the weather has something to do with it. So i'm guessing everything should be ok. If any more problems arise i'll let ya know! Any more comments welcomed! Thanx for your responses!

She finally ate her sticks tonight!