Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I adopted a couple baby res a few weeks ago. Right away, I noticed differences. One was extremely active and skiddish, where the other acted much like a baby. He was clumbsy and lethargic, slept a lot, and was always basking. I never noticed a size difference in the second one, but the active guy at least doubled in size since I've had him. I went to feed both of them today and put them in their respective feeding containers. When I picked up the little guy, he looked like I just woke him up from a nap. Usually, he wakes up for a meal. Well, I left them with some food, and checked back after a bit and noticed the little one didn't eat a thing. I picked him up again and instantly noticed that his shell was extremely soft and flimsy. I tried to move him around to get him to wake up, but he was simply limp and didn't move other than my touching him. He was definatly dead. Of course I'm extremely upset by this loss, but I wanna know if there's any ideas as to what happened to the little guy? Thinking about his lethargic personality since day one, he may have been sick all along. Or maybe it was something I did. Any ideas at all? Please let me know, I want to prevent anything to happen to my other turtle if it was something I did!

i can understand how you felt when you lost your other baby. i had also lost a baby RES whenever i first owned mine. it was lethargic and slower... always sleepy. and some baby RES are just BORN sickly. the only way you could have helped it is to take it to a vet and have it tested to see what is wrong, but even then you dont know if there is anything the vet would have been able to do for it. most would say that you should have taken your baby turtle to a vet (along with a poop sample) to have it checked out and see if there is anything the vet coudl have done for it. but other that that, nothing else could have been done.

BUT second of all... you're one baby RES should NOT have doubled in size!!! that probably means you are feeding it too much. the shell length should ONLY grown ABOUT an inch per year. you should only feed your RES enough protien that would fit into his head everday for awhile (but after a year, started feeding it that much every OTHER day, and offer GREENS everyday). if you go to Google and type in Austin's turtle page you will find a good care sheet on exactly how to take care of a res, and how much it should eat... i hope this helps
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~ Evie

Pets:
0.1.0 German Shepherd {Dusty}
0.1.0 German Shepherd/Collie mix {Shadoe}
0.0.2 RES turtles {Booger and Snot}
1.0.0 African Clawed Frog {Bingo}
0.0.1 Snail {Gary}

Yea, at the time the poor guy just seemed like he had a layed back personality, so I figured there really wasn't a big problem with him. However, thinking about it, he probably was one that was born sickly. If I ever get another baby that's just as "layed back" I'll definatly take him to the vet for extra care.

Thank you for the advice! I've read that the babies need to be fed every day for the first year, so that's what I've been doing. I didn't think about feeding them everyday...but greens ever -other-. I will try that and I'll look at Austin's page as well. Thank you again!

Just out of curiosity, from where did you adopt them? That could also make a difference in how healthy they were. From the few rescues hatchlings that I've seen, roughly 20% of them die no matter how hard you try. But, they are often kept in inadequate conditions at the wholesalers or in the stores from where they are sold, which leads to health issues.

Katrina

Yea, I got them from a guy who claimes he's been raising them for over 11 years. But from what I hear, babies are hard to take care of for many different reasons and if something is inadequate... it's almost impossible to help the turtles out. My assumption is that the guy I got them from has too many turtles to take care of in one place and I'm probably not the only one who got a sickling out of the bunch. I just really hope my other res is healthier.