redearslider.com

My RES, Rockie, is about 1 yr old (3 inches long). This is the first winter we spend together. I used to feed him in a seperate container and everything worked out fine.

But recently in the past 3 weeks, he has been eating less. since 2 weeks ago, he refuses to eat in the container and only eats in his own tank. and he ate less as well. i used to feed him 10 to 12 food sticks in the morning. he only eats about 5 sticks so my hubbie feed him another 3 to 4 sticks in the evening when we go home from work.

the tank has been getting more dirty after we feed him in his own tank. i wanna get him to eat in the seperate container again to keep his water clean. anyone has similar experience? is it because it's winter so he eats less? my water temp is 78F and basking temp is 86-88F. my hubbie has already rise the water temp to 80F but he still doesn't eat much..... he swims and basks regularly. didn't see him sneeze nor any symptom of being sick except eating less. he has hiccups after eating in the past 2 days. but the hiccup stop about 2 minutes after.

Some keepers say they slow down in winter, but my three guys are eating the same as always....as long as he's active and swimming and basking and pooping and eating, even if it's less, he's probably OK. Just keep an eye on him.....maybe try changing to a different pellet.

my 2 kind of slow down, one usually eats 8 pellets now he eats 5 so i guess...

Same here, my turtles don't seem to change whatsoever. I don't see how they know the season when they've been in captivity for their entire lives. Do they have an internal clock that tells them the season or something like that?

i tried to feed him in a seperate container to day but he just try to escape and not eating at all. how many days can i starve him so he'll eat in the other container again?

Are you doing something different than before when he was eating in the container? Are you using tank water or tap? If you are using tap water, make sure the water is at least close to the temperature of the tank water. It can be a little warmer, but never colder....also a little water conditioner can't hurt.
Try putting some freeze-dried crickets or krill in the container (or whatever is his favorite treat), move out of his line of sight, he may be nervous with you watching him.

i feed him just like before. using tap water and same temperature of tank water. he seems to be very shy like when we first got him home. i just put a food stick into his tank but he didn't touch it at all....... he seems to lose his appetite. but his shell is hard and he is quite strong. when i hold him on my hand, he always try to escape and his feets push my hands away hard...... don't know what's going on with him....

You may have inadvertently scared him somehow......I would avoid handling him and feed him in the tank for now, maybe later he'll relax enough to accept the separate container.

yeah, could be. i'll feed him in his tank for now and see if he'll get better in 2 weeks. thx~