Urgent Care :: missing claw

[louie&rascal01]

i just got back from a trip out of town and i havent changed the tank for 4 days and i dont have a filter so i have to change it almost every other day. well i came back and one of his/her claws is missing on its back leg,. is there any thing wrong? also, since im on here, i got my turtles some feeder fish today and there not eating them. the man over there said that it was instinct for them to eat them, but there not. is there any thing wrong with that?

[marisa]

I wouldn't worry about them not eating fish right away. Some turtles actually don't really care for them, and I think the instinct is to go after food that moves and it doesn't have to be fish. (They will eat them in the wild, but not as much as is commonly assumed.) At some point they'll likely become interested in them. If not, they've got "friends."

About the back claw that's missing--How many claws does your turtle have? If it's four and looks like one is missing (check the other hind foot), that's pretty much normal. One nail is typically underdeveloped or not developed.

If your turtle has 3 hind claws on the foot, he could have lost one trying to climb up something or otherwise gotten it caught. Is his basking area easy to get on? Is there something else in the tank he could have caught the nail on?

[louie&rascal01]

he/she has 4 on both feet, the other also has 4 on his.her feet. they both have 5 on the fron ones though.

[marisa]

Mine has the same. That's normal.

[mikeowins]

yup same here. both of mine have 5 on each o the front feet and 4 on each o the back feet