Hi!
I posted on here a few weeks ago about a possible respiratory infection and you all helped me figure out he did not have one! Thanks!! But I will explain again for those who don't know....
My RES is 6 years old and I have recently gotten him from a friend of mine. She had to move and could not bring him with her so I took him. She had been keeping him in a small tank with no proper lighting and on a very high protein diet only. Since getting him, he is in a new big tank with a filter and heater, a uvb light and heat lamp and a big basking area. He loves it! When I got him he has an eye infection probably because of his living conditions and his diet. I gave him drops and vitamin baths and his eyes cleared up and he has been healthy and loving his tank for almost a month now. He is still not eating any veggies but he will eat the pellets so I give him them and I'm working on getting veggies in him.
However, I've recently noticed that when he is basking he occasionally starts to twitch his head and then "paws" at his eyes and it takes a few seconds for them to open again. He does this twitching and itching thing for a little while. It isn't constant but I don't know if his eyes are getting bad again or if it is something they do while basking? He also doesn't always itch his eyes when he twitches his head and it is typically only his head that is twitching. He doesn't do this while swimming and he is swimming and eating and everything else like a happy healthy turtle.
Is this normal or is something wrong? My other concern is that I also noticed a few snails in his tank last week. I bought a plant from the pet store for him to try and he wouldn't eat it and I think the snails came from that. I cleaned out his whole tank and got rid of any snails I saw immediately and haven't found any but could they have made him sick? Any suggestions would be much appreciated! Thanks!!
