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Eating Gravel

PostPosted: Wed May 25, 2005 10:35 pm
by Vertigo
I have a baby RES, about 1 and half inches,

the gravel in his tank are slightly smaller than his head.

Has anyone ever had a problem with their RES eating gravel. I know its a bad thing but who has actually had a problem with the RES eating the gravel. will the turtle grow out of it?

PostPosted: Wed May 25, 2005 11:06 pm
by steve
i never even bothered trying gravel... the health hazard and clean up are more than enough reason not to use it.

gravel and baby turtles are a very serious combination. the risk is that much greater and you will needlessly risk the life of your turt.

PostPosted: Thu May 26, 2005 8:09 am
by pkneeyahx
yes.. get that gravel out of there. it does more harm than good. actually, the only good it does is create an esthetically pleasing look for us humans. It really serves no other purpose.. besides digging. But you can get other stuff for that.

PostPosted: Thu May 26, 2005 8:50 am
by jenaero
I had gravel in my tank when my guys were little. I took it out when I was told that they would eat it. Weeks later, I was still picking out pieces as they passed them, so I know they were eating it. They also ate the corkbark.

PostPosted: Thu May 26, 2005 10:42 am
by marisa
It's possible he'd eat it and have no problems but why take the chance? (Plus it makes it harder to keep the tank clean; I tried some a long, long time ago and the tank developed an odor that went away when I got rid of it.) A turtle that's eating gravel could be looking for calcium. I'd get rid of the gravel, give him some larger river rocks to push around and keep some pieces of cuttlebone floating in the tank.

PostPosted: Fri May 27, 2005 5:48 pm
by mitchy04
ive had my turtle for 17 months .. and only now have i found out that it is bad for my turtle .. he has been eating rocks this whole time but lucky for me nothing has gone wrong .. i was asked the helper at the pet store if it was alright if she eats the gravel and she said it was ok so i kept it in .... in my experience gravel does make the tank dirty because the bacteria hide under the rocks ..... i am gettin rid of the gravel asap because ive had my turtle too long to risk his life

PostPosted: Fri May 27, 2005 6:21 pm
by pkneeyahx
gravel is crunchy..

PostPosted: Fri May 27, 2005 6:58 pm
by jenaero
:mrgreen:

PostPosted: Fri May 27, 2005 8:58 pm
by mitchy04
would u say that gravel is more likely to hurt a young turt instead of a big turt like mine .... my turt is 9 inches and the gravel is really small and she never has more then 1 in her mouth so is it really that bad that i have to take out right away :?:

PostPosted: Sat May 28, 2005 1:33 pm
by marisa
I would think a smaller turt would have the bigger problem expelling it once eaten, therefore greater chance of impaction. A person on another site took over the care of a turtle; the previous keeper had it in a tank with gravel/pebbles. The new owner kept the turtle in a gravel-less tank and was able to count over 100 pieces that were pooped out.

I've read that turtles sometimes do eat small pebbles in the wild, and it's thought that they perhaps aid in digestion. But that's in the wild--they're on the move and don't remain in one place with gravel to snack on all the time. I'd remove it, perhaps not this second, but sooner rather than later. Try the cuttlebone if you haven't already--some think that eating gravel/pebbles is a sign the turt is looking for calcium.

Plus, like you said, it's stinky.