Urgent Care :: help!! i dont want jorgy to die!!!!!

[turtle man]

when i got jorgy, he was the biggest of all three and used to bite the others, so when i would feed them i would make sure that jorgy got much less than the others, now i'm stuck,it is a known fact that when chelonians dont eat for to long they stop recocnizing food and starve, NOW JORGY HASN'T EATEN IN ABOUT ONE WEEK!!!

I didnt want to sit around and let him die, so this is what i did after i tried every food under the sun and i'm sure some of you wont like it, I decided i must force the food into his mouth, i tried pulling it open nothing doing then I found out that if you put your finger a little behind his head and push lightly, the front of his head goes onto his plastron and however it happens, he like gags or something and he opens his mouth repeatedly.

so when he did that, i put food in and held his mouth shut so he wouldnt spit it out.plus i put lots of powdered multivitamin into the tank, by the way my "biggest" turtle is now the smallest, and i cant affored a vet.ANYONE HAVE A BETTER SUGGESTION SO I CAN STOP TORTURING JORGY!!!

[marisa]

It may be that an ill turtle who hasn't eaten for long time may "forget" how to eat, but not a healthy one. Does he exhibit any other symptoms of being ill? What do his eyes look like---are they swollen? Does he yawn frequently?

Please do not torture your turtle by force feeding him like you've been doing. The worst case scenario is that he will choke on the food you're forcing him to take down and asphyxiate. And do not overdo it with the vitamins.

I'm wondering how a turtle that was once the biggest of the 3 is now the smallest after only a week. Turtles can go without eating for quite a bit more than a week...

If he's showing no other signs of being ill, I'd look at the enclosure for possible clues. How big is the tank? How big are the turtles in it (shell lengths without the curves)?

I don't know what foods you've tried, but have you tried something with a strong smell (sardines, tuna?) or something that moves (an earthworm)?

[turtle man]

my turtles are less than 2 inches, i got them a month and half ago, unfortunatly i still my little 10 gal tank, i'm working on getting a bigger one, and after 5 weeks of getting very little food, jorgy has stopped eating,

his sytmtoms include weakness of senses, for instance I'll come into the room while his head is out of water and he'll let me pet his head for a while before sluggishly moving away as opposed to scrambling the sec I get close, and yes.. he has been opening his mouth more than usual, and his eyes are fantastic!, now i could simply just let him be, but

I think that a CHANCE of asphyxiate is better than sure death.

[turtle man]

jorgy finally ate some blood worms today!!!!!!!!
!!!!

[steve]

Great to hear! Once he's regained his normal appetite, switch back to a normal diet. Don't want to overfeed him

[marisa]

Good to hear, but why did he get so little food for 5 weeks?

[turtle man]

bad question, I wanted him to get smaller so he would stop biting/bossing the others, I learnt from my mistakes.

Now I have another problem with jorgy...!
he seems to be having some sort of trouble chewing,
when I feed him pellets (the size of poppy seeds)while my other turts will go and gobble the pellets one after another he'll go to a single pellet, put it in his mouth and chew... and chew.... and after it falling out of his mouth several times he'll give up, so far the only thing that has worked is freeze dried blood worms which are small and soft, I dont think he was like this when I got him

[steve]

Is he separated from the others?

[turtle man]

he is when I feed them, I take the other 2 out and keep him in.oh...yesterday he ate 2 poppy seed size pellets!