Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi, i have had a hatchling razorback musk for almost a week now. He looks healthy overall but he wont eat. i tried mealworms, pellets, guppies, and crickets and he dosnt even glance at them. he is about a month or two old, and im getting worried. hes in a 10 gallon tank with the water at 80 degrees and a uv light and filter. it looks like he is mssing front claws and a few back claws and i dont know if another turtle bit him before i got him. he is housed alone. any help will be greatly appreciated.

thank you,
dave

May sound like a stupid question but are you putting the food in the water with him? Turtles have to be under water to eat because the don't produce saliva... Otherwise, I'm pretty much in the same boat except with a snapping turtle who's actually showing signs of something pretty seriously wrong.
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0.1.0 Colombian Red-tailed Boa (100% Het. for albino)
0.0.3 Western Hognose Snakes
0.1.1 Plains Garter Snakes
1.0.0 Red-sided Garter Snake
1.2.0 Barred Tiger Salamanders
0.0.1 Red-eared Slider
0.0.1 Common Snapping Turtle

yes hes in water about 5 inchs with the food being placed in the water

80 degrees is a bit toasty, infact its extremely hot. You want a warm basking area and normal room temp water. These guys don't live in shallow hot rainforest pools they are stream dwellers in the U.S.

1. Take the heating element out of the water and add a spot light at one end of the enclosure under a haul out (dry log/rock etc. see if you can get the water temps in the low 70's

2. Make sure the little fella has plastic plants and junk to hide in. Make him feel secure.

3. Try a live earthworm. Very few creatures will pass up a tastey worm.

4. Make sure you filter or change the water well. Dirty, hot, unfiltered water will be the death of him.

I'm sure once he experiences the cooler, more oxegenated water and sees that worm he'll snap out of it.

As far as the missing claws: I don't know off the top of my head what that might be. Reptiles lose claws and other horny parts of their bodies when they are not kept in conditions for which they are adapted. I don't know of this specifically in turtles, but its possible.

If you have any specific questions send them to my email as I don't frequent these forums often. Nasicus@hotmail.com

DAN