Reptile & Amphibian Forums

About two years ago, I bought a Gulf Coast spiny softshell at a reptile show. She's pretty healthy, but she's barely grown at all. She lives outside in a kiddie pool in the spring and summer and she's fed almost every day, but she's barely grown at all.

Personally, I've never been able to get her to eat anything other than dried shrimp and earthworms. My mom says she's seen her eat some turtle pellets and cat food, but she's still so small (2.5-3 inches).

is something wrong or are they slow-growing turtles?

.O.:.

They seem to be unpredictable in their growth rates.
They should do fine in louisana.

General advice:

Avoid sharp rocks and logs.
Use sand for a substrate.
Make a shallow area

Make lots of hides
Main wild food is actually crayfish.
Most babies will eat ghost/glass shrimps and pre-killed guppies/mollies and small annelid worms.

Adults usually take cooked chicken, smelt, shrimp, any insect, tadpoles, any fish (they are great fishermen) and small crayfish .

Many don't eat well if there isn't lots of hiding spots.
Some people seem to think sand helps them adjust as well.
And they DO bask.

this was meant as a reply to your post and the thread below...somehow i thought they were in the same thread.

hey thanks a lot

I gave her some stuff to hide under and caught a bunch of small crawfish...she ate them all within 45 minutes

.Owen.:.
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.Owen.:.

"We don't even care as restless as we are. We feel the pull in the land of a thousand guilts. We poured cement, lamented and assured to the lights and towns below, faster than the speed of sound, faster than we thought we'd go beneath the sound of hope." ~The Smashing Pumpkins

"That Owen kid...man...he really loves that snake of his." ~Owen

great.