Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi,

Our 3-year-old RES Stanley has extremely long nails on his front limbs. Is this normal? Should we place a pumice or other rough-textured stone in his tank that he can file his nails against? lately, he has seemed to be rubbing or shaking his front limbs across the surface of the ceramic "log" that he has in his tank (for hiding in).

Also, we're not sure if he has enough to entertain him in his tank. Do any of you have any suggestions of things that could make his life more interesting?

Thanks so much for your help! A few years ago, Stanley had an ear infection, and thanks to the knowledgeable people on this forum, we realized the urgency of the situation and got him emergency medical care.

Robbie and Nadia

long nails just means hes a male, dont do anything, it is supposed to be like that. how is your tank setup? i avoid live food, but some fish that are hard for him to catch can liven things up for him. i also like to use crayfish, they will eventually be eaten, but until then they help keep the tank clean. he wil lprobably chase those too.

How old should they be for them to be fed crayfish. I thought they were better off avoided until adults and could they hurt the turtle?

they could injure the turtle. i have had them with 4" turtles without problems. but even an adult could be injured from one, so it is up to you. no matter what there is some risk of injury to the turtle.

>>they could injure the turtle. i have had them with 4" turtles without problems. but even an adult could be injured from one, so it is up to you. no matter what there is some risk of injury to the turtle.

If you are concerned about the crayfish injuring your turtle, just pull off the large front claws. The crayfish dont need them to eat with, only for defending themselves from turtles and other crayfish. They will grow back eventually anyway. I usually grab the crayfish on the back and use pliers to grasp the claw and twist it off.
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iturnrocks.com

I'm not posting this to be argumentative so don't take it this way.
Crayfish carry a nasty bacterium called Beneckea chitinovora which is known to be a turtle shell eating disease.

I also know someone who fed crayfish to their slider & then the slider nearly died from impaction. The chitin of the crayfish shell wouldn't pass through the turtle & the turtle had to be hospitalized, he barely made it then was never fed that again.
I wouldn't house crayfish with mine for these reasons.
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PHRatz

Instead of crayfish, i'd rather use freshwater shrimps. In my area, these are sold as feeders, just like fish. They're so small, they can't do any harm to my turts, they have transparant shells, and most dont have pincers (even if they have pincers, the pincers are to small to pinch any of my turts). They also help to clean the tank from leftovers. Only problem is, they're damn quick, lightning fast reflexes (o_0)

At least they wont run out as quick as the feeder fishes does ^^. And, if your concerned with bacteria, u may keep these quarantined in a seperate tank, while fatting them up (kinda like gutloading crix, heh)
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My "babies" :
1.0.0 Indo BTS (Tiliqua gigas gigas)
0.0.1 Rainbow skinks (Mabuya multifasciata)
0.0.3 RES (Trachemys scripta elegans)
0.0.3 Amboina box turtles (Cuora amboinensis)
1.0.0 Chinese softshell (Trionyx sinensis)
1.0.0 Asian leaf turtle (Cyclemys dentata)
1.0.0 Leopard gecko (Eublepharis macularius)
And still growing...

The front nails on my RES were so long they were flipping backwards when he walked so I had my vet trim them, no big deal.

Perfectly normal. NEVER cut his nails. He's a man turtle, let him have his manliness.
his attention to inanimate objects with his nails is that he's practicing his courting to it...cute aint it.
my boys do it to each other all the time