General Care Discussion

Hi Turtle experts. Need help again to understand if this is in the spectrum of normal or a big red flag of illness.

You can read all about Rain in my other post "Tired of Him" in the general care discussion area- pix of set up are there. She is likely a female adult RES (possibly hybrid with something else due to her shell patterns baffling everyone). Her shell is about 7 inches long. Kids threw her into a cold pond at the park and I pulled her out. She has been with me for about two weeks.

I have seen her bask for about 20 hours straight WITH NICE WARM TANK WATER, 77 TO 78 DEGREES two or three times now. I cleaned out her tank yesterday afternoon, then fed her on my lap and put her back home. She swam for a bit at first then went to basking last night at about 9pm. I turned her lights off at my bedtime around 11 and back on this morning around noon- she was unmoved up on the basking platform, alert, blinking, looking at me. It is now 6pm in the afternoon I finally nudged her back into the water because I was getting freaked out (I moved the UVB bulb further away from her this morning to avoid any burning).

She did this like twice before. It always ends in me freaking out and putting her back in the water where she does fine (swims normally, no lopsidedness, able to fully submerge to tank bottom with shell level- I read all the clues to look for respiratory infection and she has none of them, unless you consider an occasional underwater yawn a warning sign).

She is doing fine in the water right now, not looking to get out (and she can easily get out) but swimming around actively. Its like she gets to comfy basking and just stays there. What do you all think of this?

Could it be that she had no or very poor UVB in her prior home and is now going gung ho on the basking sometimes because her body is telling her she needs it? I know nothing of her prior set up except that she was cared for by self centered ignorant teenaged boys who threw her away because they were tired of her and expected her to be able to survive in the wild in Feb (Arizona) in a 40 degree pond. Her shell looks healthy though....would it be if she had been without UVB before this?

There are lots of little reptile skin flakes swirling around the tank now that she is in the water again and she does the self cleaning motions to try and rub old skin off. She started shedding alot shortly after she started eating.

Guess what? In the time it took me to write this she swam around and now is back up on the basking platform. What should I do? let her be? what do you all think?

RES are aggressive baskers. My turtles would sometimes stay on there for hours at a time while just sticking their heads into the water to drink. Unless she looks/act sick, something very noticable, than there's nothing to worry about. She probably didn't get a lot of UVA/UVB from their other home.

thanks

she is swimming around rather vigorously right now. One other thought that crossed my mind....could she be gravid and wanting to lay eggs when she stays out that long? I have still have to learn all about that weirdness and what to do if that happens. Mammals are so much easier to figure out

When you cleaned the tank and put in new water, did you add anything to remove the chloramine/chlorine in the water?

Is it possible she's reacting untreated water.

If you have carbon in your filter, that should break down chloramine in the water, but that will take some time. Municipal water treatment used to use chlorine as an additive to kill bacteria. Most now use chloramines because it doesn't break down. However, that not breaking down part can be a problem for aquariums.

Chloramines can be deadly for fish and the bacteria growing in your filter. They aren't going to kill a turtle, but may irritate it.

It can be neutralized via water additives. However, many here, including myself, don't believe in dumping lots of chemicals in a turtle tank.

VeipaCray has a great thread on an aquarium water changing system that will neutralize the chloramine without chemicals:

viewtopic.php?f=9&t=33171

Carbon in a canister filter will work as well. Once you have an established aquarium, with enough beneficial bacteria to keep up with the waste, partial water changes and carbon in the filter should be more than enough to deal with the chloramine in added water.

I'm not sure this is the explanation, but if everything else looks good and she's back to normal in a bit, it may be the answer.

The water temp sounds good. Turtles can bask quite a bit. But sleeping outside of the water could be a sign of concern.

I've not seen a gravid turtle myself, but one of the signs is trying to dig with her rear claws.

Great thought, but no I used the water treatment drops as I have every time with her tank fills in the same way. thanks for the help everyone. No digging with claws, i did read to look for that. right now I think she thinks her reflection is another turtle in the tank, its like she is swimming at her reflection. also trying to get her shedding skin off alot, preening. She just has alot of energy after all that sleeping. Hopefully she is just being herself. I watch closely because I'm new- don't know what the heck I'm doing yet...better safe than sorry. Now a sick guinea pig? I can spot one from a mile. I can hold one in my hand and know in two seconds if something is wrong.

NOW SHE IS ATTACKING HER WATER HEATER. LOL! She is such a spaz tonight. She just chomped a bit of lettuce left in the tank too, for the first time ever. I cannot get her to eat any fresh vegetables yet which really should be the bulk of her diet as an adult, so that is a good sign. Maybe her true personality is just starting to come out now. She is having some different behaviors but appears healthy by all standards I can see- reactive, not lethargic, interested in things, able to maneuver quite well. Hopefully I just have new mommy syndrome

Well if she continues to not eat veggies then lay off the pellets/protein and leave veggies in there and she'll eventually eat it.

ok, will do. yeah, i understand that too much protein can cause all kinds of problems. she only eaten dehydrated shrimp/worms, green turtle pellets (cheap, came with tank but have reptomin coming in mail) and some nice tilapia i cooked for her which she ADORED. she had two feedings like that. next one is tomorrow- i'm only serving veg- romaine, carrots, ill see what else i can find on the list for her.

My alpha boar guinea pig is a bit tense about sharing his veg with this invader. he FREAKS OUT when it comes out of the fridge and does not end up in his pen. lol. he is such a diva.

Turtles - never boring.

Watch out guinea pig probably plotting against the turtle!

Devilduck, personally I think you may be onto something.

Puppy the Guinea Pig (that's his name) is highly intelligent. Every day he waddles over to the corner of his pen and just sits there and glares at the turtle's home for an hour or two, slowly grinding his teeth.

I have long suspected that Puppy has some undercover secret agent training that he's not telling me about....he may well have trained with the Gforce before coming to live with me.

Needless to say, I am closely watching him.

I think you guys are right about Rain's reluctance to go into the water has to do with it being new. Maybe she doesn't like the drops themselves or maybe they aren't doing a good enough job of removing chloramines (although we have very little chlorine and no fluoride in our water). In any case, she is going in and out of the water more normally now that a few days have gone by. I will have to learn more about natural ways to remove the chloramines.

I fed her lightly blanched carrots yesterday- she only ate a little, she didn't like it. She turned down the Romaine. So I today I took her list of vegetables to the market and got red leaf lettuce, endive, dandelion greens and lots of other treats for her, all organic. I put one endive leaf in the tank because she barely ate yesterday and she loved it

So hopefully these new vegetables help with her diet. She continues to do very well thanks to all the help I have gotten here on this forum

General Care Discussion :: HELP- Rain basks too long (like 20 hrs, water 77 degrees)

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