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Turtle not digesting lettuce? Brown flakes...

PostPosted: Sat Nov 12, 2011 1:41 am
by ChangTang
So my little 2" baby RES has been chowin down on a large leaf of romaine in the past couple days. Today i woke up to a LOT of floating, brown, small bite sized lettuce pieces. I havent noticed any turtle turds lately so I'm guessing this is all he has had to poop out. It's almost as if he's unable to digest the lettuces at this age? Should I refrain from greens until he's older?

Re: Turtle not digesting lettuce? Brown flakes...

PostPosted: Sat Nov 12, 2011 3:01 am
by steve
It's brown? Was it thrown up?

Re: Turtle not digesting lettuce? Brown flakes...

PostPosted: Sat Nov 12, 2011 3:33 am
by ChangTang
I have no real way to know if it was thrown up or pooped out. I'm sorry if this is in the wrong forum. The romaine was freshly bought and rinsed under warm water to wash off any bad stuff thats sprayed on it. I haven't noticed it until just now.

Re: Turtle not digesting lettuce? Brown flakes...

PostPosted: Sat Nov 12, 2011 4:49 am
by steve
It could be either if it's very loose.

Re: Turtle not digesting lettuce? Brown flakes...

PostPosted: Sat Nov 12, 2011 4:24 pm
by ChangTang
Yeah, I was thinking as such. I may keep it out of the tank until he gets a little bigger.

Re: Turtle not digesting lettuce? Brown flakes...

PostPosted: Sat Nov 12, 2011 11:17 pm
by Love of Animals
My turtle will poop out brown pieces of lettuce. It comes out like a poop then he goes and eats it which stirs it up. Then the goldfish eats it with him. I think the lettuce doesn't get fully digested. Maybe it needs the second round to digest. After it's stirred up it does look like he had diarrhea. The filter takes care of it in about 15 minutes. If I hadn't seen what happened I would have thought he had diarrhea as well. Did you see it come out like diarrhea. And don't worry it's normal for turtles to eat their own stools.

Re: Turtle not digesting lettuce? Brown flakes...

PostPosted: Sun Nov 13, 2011 1:42 am
by ChangTang
Well no I hadn't seen him poop it out. My filter doesnt have a top skimmer so I have to go in with the fish net and try to skim out as much as possible.