Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Anyone opposed?

during the summer i catch live crayfish for my ally. he loves them!!! i do take off the big claws though because i dont want to risk my ally getting poked in the eye. (i know i probably dont need to do this but i really dont want to risk injury) i dont know how the vet would feel if i bring in a 20-30 pound ally snapper with an eye infection!!!!!

I have done it before. I too tore off the 2 large claws before feeding them to him.

-Chris
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Currently in the US Navy so I have sold off my collection. But over the years I have had dozens of turtles, fish, geckos, and other lizards. Cant wait to get back in the hobby once im out though!

I feed my Ally's crayfish about once per month and they seem to like them. I do the same I take off the big claws if they have them but the crayfish only live for a day or so after I remove their claw? Is there a way to remove their claw and keep them alive longer? Are we suppose to rip them off near the base or near the claw part? I usually rip off near the base ( body ).

thats weird that they die so quickly. i'll have crayfish live for months after i rip the claws off at the body. when i was little i had a tank just for crayfish and the claws would grow back. they would be a little bigger with each molt. i have seen that too with the ones in my ally tank if they manage to dodge the turtle for a couple months.

Someone is worried about a 20 pound turtle being wounded by a crayfish! Come on lets get serious, maybe a 10 pound lobster. As far as the crayfish dying within a few days after removing its defensive claws its probably from shock or bad water chemisty. My question is, if you want to keep them alive for several days ,weeks,or months why are you removing the claws at all? I have 2 yearling red eared sliders that I have in a 50 gallon aquarium and I decided to put in a couple of crayfish to clean up any scraps that the turtles might miss when feeding. The turtles were 4 to 4.5 inches long and I put in 2 crayfish that were approx the same length, 4 inches. But the crayfish only had about 1/5 the mass of the turtles. Within two days, all that was left of the crayfish were parts of their shells. It was a no contest and I had thought that the crayfish were large enough to defend themselves. I am sure that they could of over powered a hatchling. Of course these are just my observations. Jack

LOL

My ally's are 3" and 4" SCL. I have no doubt about the turtles winning and eating the crayfish that I buy but some of the crayfish I have bought have had some huge claws. I really do not want to take the chance ( however little it may be ) of the crayfish pinching one of them in the eye. Same reason you would feed pre-killed rodents to a snake or lizard. I would feel like an idiot if my $300 turtle was missing an eye due to a $2 crayfish. If I baby my turtles this bad I can only imagine how the owner of some of the really expensive ball python morphs baby their snakes.

but i'll admit that i might be. hahaha. im not saying that my ally cant finish off a crayfish with out any problem. true, there probably wont ever be a problem. however, like i said in my other post, i dont want to walk into the vets office where they are use to cats and dogs with a 20-30 pound alligator snapping turtle with an injury to the eye. so lets just get this straight.........im the sissy, not the turtle!!! lol

Well said, I am glad that you are taking full responsibility for your innocent turtle being branded a sissy coward yellow belly egg sucker!!! What I would suggest in the future is that you just snap off the lower part of the main pinchers of the crawdad. In this way you can boost your turtles ego and give him more confidence in tackling more dangerous prey in the future like maybe a nightcrawler or a blind minnow with clipped fins or maybe some of those ever elusive and dangerous floating pellets. Take care Jack

ive already taken the first step, i have been leaving the bing oinchers on there but just crushing them so they are useless. im so afraid to put live fish in there though. you sure a blind minnow is ok? and pellet foods are ok too? i was afraid that he would choke on those!!!!!!!

haha.....i love sarcasm

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Frank Roberts
Roberts' Realm Of Reptile Research
R&R Herpetological

No kidding. I used to just throw in huge bags of live crawfish (claws and all) and the big alli would vanquish them all in a day or so.