Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I've had my turtle for about three years now. I've recently noticed that he has a blueish-green color around his mouth and a little on top of his nose. I have no idea what it is, but I've never seen it on him before. I took a picture of it. Sorry about the quality of it.. he wasn't cooperating.

Blue Mouth

Before the blue mouth

His tank (75 gallons)

i had a common snapper get the "blue mouth" before. i think its just a reaction to chlorine in the water. mine was inside for the colder months and once i put him back outside in his pond in natural light, it faded away.

Hello there, great lookin turtle and I agree with the other guy, it's probably nothin to wory about. I just have a suggestion...You might wanna get him in a much bigger tank...or if your willing to really go for the gold..then set him up a pond or somethin in your backyard...as long as the weather is ok for them...I heard that is the best thing for them...but also a more difficult task...just a suggestion. Thanks for your time!

I would be surprised if this was caused by chlorinated water. I have used tap water in my turtle tanks for as long as I can rmemeber. I have never had a turtle develop this color on its mouth. I was thinking it may be some form of algae or some type of fungal or bacterial infection but, it is very hard to tell anything from that photo. I did notice the turtle's head looks otherwise very yelowish in the pic with the bluish lips, some of the tank looks more bluish than in the other photos too. The photo is also quite blurry. Maybe a better more true to life photo would make it easier to tell what it is.

As to the suggestion that you get a larger tank, I would definitely go along with that recommendation. One that would be about 2 times the surface area would be a good idea for now, but one that would be about 3 to 4 times the surface area would be a better choice. It does not have to be quite as deep. The snapping turtle would also benefit from some hiding places - objects that it could easily get underneath. This would give it more of a feeling of a turtle's equivalent of security than what it probaly has now.

best regards,
Glenn B

Thanks for the tips. I am going to try to take more pictures. I just bought that tank and can't afford a new one at this time. I doubt I could have him outside though, I live in Jersey and it's freezing in the winter. He had the blue lips once before but it went away on its own. I can't remember if it was this time of year or not though.

Any suggestions on what to put in his tank for hiding places? I tried putting in plants but he ate them.

Took another picture. As for the color of the water, it is clear. I think the blue was from the wall color and sunlight.

I use Terra Cota flower pots turned on their sides or broken in half (very difficult to saw or break these into nice large almost half sized pieces though).

I'm worried about him attacking anything I put in the tank. Also, couldn't he get stuck in them? Maybe I'm just paranoid though

I came across a couple websites that should help you out..

http://www.turtlehomes.org/usa/snappingturtles.shtml

http://www.austinsturtlepage.com/Care/cs-commonsnapper.htm

http://www.chelydra.org/

hope this helps!

"I put in plants before and he just ate them"

Great! Security until devoured You'll have a balanced diet too.

Rocks, wood, and pottery all work good for other materials. Due to your space constraints you can also cover the glass in certain areas to maximize the effects of an otherwise small peice of cage furniture.

Ian

Thanks agian everyone.

Mortal - great pages.. had lots of good info

Ian - I'm going to try putting some rocks in (I have to find some big ones cause I had small rocks in but he tried swallowing them) Then I'll prolly cover off areas, never thought to do that, great idea!

One last thing.. on the pages that were listed, there was a thing about common snappers vs alligator snappers.

http://www.chelydra.org/common_alligator_snapping_turtle.html

I've never known what kind of turtle he was. And I still don't. A lot of people have told me he's a common, but he doesn't look like any common I've ever seen. His shell is more like the alligator snappers, only a little smoother, but not as smooth as a commons. His head is also between the two. His nails are longer then both. And he has a feature I've never seen on a turtle, or any animal actually, he has what looks like a goatee kinda. I circled it on a picture. I don't know a lot about turtles so maybe it's normal. Any help with classification would be great. By the pictures I've seen of both alligator snappers and commons, he looks like a mix between the two.

You said his head is between alligator and common, that makes me think it could be a Florida snapper. Look on that same website you got the alligator vs common and find the common vs florida.