Urgent Care :: adult YBS refuses to eat, making me cry.

[giggitygoo21]

To start things off, I am new here so I apologize in advance for anything.
I have had my Yellow Bellied Slider(Rupert) for 3 years now. He is currently in a 180 gallon fish tank with some fish that he has lived with for a while. He does not eat the fish, but he loves eating his plants, and raw shrimp. he NEVER passes up shrimp.
About a month ago, i rescued my cousin's baby YBS. They have seemed to get along just fine, the little one even climbs on top of the big one to bask every day.
Well, about 2 weeks ago I started waking up to the big turtle slamming against the glass swimming against it. He has done this every morning since then, and REFUSES to even look at food. Shrimp, pellets, bloodworms.....I tried buying fresh kale and fresh lettuce. The little one is eating everything that Rupert ignores.
He is more active than usual, swimming against the glass, and he is still basking alot. I tried letting him run it off outside, but it didn't seem to help.
I am so frustrated I can't even sleep past 8:30 AM because of him slamming the glass. I would really appreciate any advice I am really upset. Do you think he is mad about the other turtle???

[unclejoe]

Sounds like your boy YBS might be a girl YBS and is Gravid.. Meaning she wants to lay eggs.. She is trying to get out so she can lay eggs.. Can you post a picture of her?? We need to see tail length and her front claws.. The length of her tail and front claws will tell us definitively that she is male or female.. If she is female, there are links here I can post from this site about gravid females..

[steve]

So neither are actually harassing the other?

[giggitygoo21]

Good news!! He/She finally ate last night after i put anacharis in the tank. He/She is still swimming like crazy against the glass slamming it's shell. He/she wakes me up EVERY MORNING at 9am SLAMMING the glass and is still doing it right now at 2PM.
I have seen the little turtle(1/3 size) swimming upto the bigger one and doing this weird move where he starts wiggling reeeeally fast like a dance and using the front 2 feet to almost scratch the big ones face(thats what it looks like) Neither of them seem upset by this but the big one will just shove him/her away if he/she gets annoyed. Is this a mating ritual or something?

I will post pictures later today.
Thank you all!!! <3

[unclejoe]

It sounds like it may possibly be.. Does the little one have really long front claws??

[giggitygoo21]

Yes the little one has long claws and keeps doing this scratching dance. He is so small though I don't think he has reached sexual maturity.

[unclejoe]

Any possibility you can take pics of both turtles and their front claws and tails?? That is how you can tell..

[Jeremiah]

Your male (little guy) is fluttering, and likely stressing the female out. It's possible that he impregnated her, when you weren't around. This occasionally happens to female turtles (becoming gravid, but with infertile eggs) in the absence of a male, but the addition of a male...Well...

Also, kale should be more of a treat than a staple green. It has oxalates, which interfere with calcium metabolism.