Urgent Care :: biting of floating log??

[kitkatl3ar]

help! my male turtle (almost 2 years old) has just started biting the floating log that he basks on. he will actually take off CHUNKS of it (which surprises me because of the material of the log, i didnt think he had it in him!). he started doing this when i changed his water about two weeks ago, he has lived in this tank for about two months (i had to separate him from my other male because they were fighting and he was held in a temporary tank until i could get him a new tank). it is the same exact log he had in his old tank so i dont know where this behavior is coming from.

he used to get bitten lots of times from my other turtle (and was very passive about it). is his aggressive behavior just showing up now and hes taking it out on the log? i am worried about his health too but he basks on this log so i dont want to take it out. also i see bits of it floating around in the tank so i dont know if he is actually swallowing it!

what can i do to discourage his behavior? i thought about getting one of those calcuim turtles so he can munch on that..

[octpusgirl8]

He might be craving calcium, get him a cuttlebone (they sell it for birds) and chip off the hard bit on one side. Drop a piece in his tank and see if that stops him from biting the log. Even if it doesn't, it's still good to have a supplemental calcium source for him. If he doesn't leave the log alone, look into a different style of basking platform, like an acrylic ramp. If you get the turtle shaped calcium block, be careful that it's just a calcium supplement and not a medicated sulfa block. They're not good to use.

[TurtleLover_S&B]

Well,you may not be feeding them enough.He could need some calcium!!