Greetings all! This is two people speaking with one voice. Approximately two weeks ago, our friends gave us two red ear sliders. We immediately fell in love with them and wished to provide them with the best life that we possibly can. Our friends informed us of what to do, but we began to do our own research on several websites such as this. It turns out that our friends really knew very little about the proper care of RES's. One of our fathers used to keep many aquatic pets and he found one of his old books, in which he read that turtles like 'pea gravel'. With the intention of giving them a better habitat than just a 20 gallon tank with a basking spot, I went and got some gravel and some plants. Terrible idea, as I now know. Within 20 minutes of putting the turtles in their newly decorated tank, we observed one of our turtles, Oogway, eating a piece of gravel, and then another. We immediately freaked, scooped the turtles out, and got rid of all the gravel. We then found information that we had not previously seen, regarding impaction - It turns out that having gravel in the tank is one of the easiest ways to kill an RES. We became overcome with sadness when we saw that there was very little we could do about it. On one 'Impaction' question where someone had the same issue, someone else responded that sometimes you can get a stone to pass by adding mineral oil to the food. I have been doing this, and watching for feces as best I can, although we are not home 24/7 so I fear if he does pass the stone, he may eat it again. This incident was exactly one week ago today. From what I've learned from my research, there's not much else I can do - but I still though I'd ask you all. Have any of you had this issue in the past? If I take our turtles to get an Xray, and it shows that the stones are still inside, what would the vet be able to do about it? How long does a turtle usually have after eating gravel? For the first few days I woke up each morning and timidly approached the tank, fearing I would find him dead. I expected him to either pass on, or pass the stone - the first being what I considered to be much more likely. I definitely did not expect him to last a week without passing the stone. Any advice or information you all may have is greatly appreciated.
Warm Regards,
A fellow RES lover
