Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Please help.. i think my malayan box is having a mild case of diarrhoea.

Should i alter his diet? I am now feeding him with commercially prepared pellets. They consist of 34% protein. Is that right for him? He devours his food very greedily. And he loves the sticks.

this is a good question, however it may be more appropriate for the "box turtle" forum rather than this one...the people there tend to have much more experience dealing w/your species of turtle.
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"If we are good only because we fear punishment and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed."
-Albert Einstein

Hi,
I've kept Malaysian box turtles for a number of years now on pelleted foods and leafy greens without any problems. A couple of questions. Was your turtle WC or CB. If it was WC,theres a very good chance it has intestinal parasites and needs to be treated for them. Regardless, you need to take a stool sample into the vet for a fecal analysis. Best of luck
David

Well the first problem is that pellets, no matter what anyone tells, you do mNOT make for a complete diet. Ambos love earth worms and berries and melon.
I would get him some of that.
If he ha sloo se s tool sthere may b e several thing s wrong.
The b es t thing to do is to collect some of the stool s in aziplock bag an d bring themn to a good reptile vet to do a fecal e xamination.
In the meantime, you can ska him once a day in a solution of about half water an half pedialyte (a product made for babies/children who have dehydration issues) or about 5 parts water and one part gatorade (pedialyte is better as it has less sugar). Try checking the temperature sin the cage an d do a complete water change. Ambo sare sen sitive to dirty water. It i slikely that your turtle has some intestinal parasite and will need to be wormed. This is very common among w ild caught ambos