Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My turtles are about a year apart in age. I introduced them slowly and they get along great. but sometimes whenever i feed them, the big one will stand on the little ones shell (almost as if to try and hold it down) and then eat all the food! HOW RUDE! but the little one has learned quite well! he/she will fight and kick her/his way to get some food, and considering she/he is much faster than the bigger turtle, she/he usually gets their share of food!

Also, sometimes whenever i feed them earthworms, they seem to confuse each others feet for a worm. they see it moving, so they automatically try to go after each others feet. there havent been any wounds, as of yet. should i be worried, or are they just confused when they see something moving? i wouldnt want anything to happen to either of them! i'm pretty sure they dont bite down on the feet, because as soon as they realize what it is, they spit the others feet back out! should i be concerned with this behavior? Thanks for listening to me babble!

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~ Evie

Pets:
German Shephard {Dusty}
German Shephard/Collie mix {Shadoe}
2 RES turtles {Booger and Snot}
African Clawed Frog {Bingo}
Snail {Gary}

Hi!

It is a bad idea to join two sliders with such age difference, it is preferable to have a couple to meet since they are babies, because the will know each other from ever since they have memory.

I would suggest to have them in separated tanks, it is much easy to take care of two sliders in this way, for many reasons, one is that maybe the little one may have an infection, whereas the older one is healthy, or any of both could develop a disease, also it is more enjoyable to watch them separately, and experiment with differente ambients, like a tropical river a pond, a swamp, etc... Once the young one grows you could try to join them again.

It is know that age/species/size difference pulls an agressive behavior, I have read of sliders pulling each others tails for example... I have a mud turtle and a nicaraguan slider, one day I put both in a tank to "see what happens", in a matter of seconds the mud turtle tried to eat the slider's shell!!! Never again, I didn't know that encounter could be so violent.

Hope this will help!
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Rodolfo Quesada
Costa Rica

1 Nicaraguan Slider (Trachemys scripta emolli)
1 Mud Turtle (Kinosternon scorpiodes albogulare)
2 Peach Faced Lovebirds (Agapornis Roseicollis)
3 Dogs (Canis Familiaris)
-- American Pitbull Terrier
-- White American-Canadian Shepperd
-- Boxer and Irish Setter Mix
1 Cat (Felis Catus)
-- Street Cat
And a lot of tropical birds eating mangos and guayabas in our garden!!

well see... i combined them by the books. the larger one had a tank mate, but unfortunately it died. and it wasnt long after that i received this smaller one. i quarentined it for a few months and then combined them slowly, a few hours per day. they arent agressive towards each other at any other time, except when i put a live worm in their tank, which makes me think they just go after the movement of the others feet after they see and eat the "moving" worm. also, it's not always the large turtle going after the smaller one, the smaller one also tries going after the larger ones feet. i was wondering, do anyone elses turtles do this?
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~ Evie

Pets:
German Shephard {Dusty}
German Shephard/Collie mix {Shadoe}
2 RES turtles {Booger and Snot}
African Clawed Frog {Bingo}
Snail {Gary}

You could just separate them when feeding. Mine don't go for each others feet, when I put in an earthworm, they usually both grab an end and play tug of war until it breaks in half
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Yea, i have been seperating them during feeding, just to be on the safe side! thanks for the info
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~ Evie

Pets:
German Shephard {Dusty}
German Shephard/Collie mix {Shadoe}
2 RES turtles {Booger and Snot}
African Clawed Frog {Bingo}
Snail {Gary}