General Care Discussion :: Eating of Other Turtles feces

[NikkiD]

After owning my turtles for only a month, I hadn't seen either turtle poop until today. I new they did since I'd have to slean out some matter, but today, I witnessed it. Well, I imediately got up to clean it out, but before I got to it, The other turt took a big bite out of it.
I know that neither one of them goes hungry, since I always watch them whiole they eat to make sure they both get enough food. So he wasn't eatinmg it because he was starving, but is this normal? What should I do?

[ellman605]

its normal, dont worry

[marisa]

Turtles will do this. They'll eat just about anything, and like smelly things, so... And this is especially true since they're in a captive space (much less likely that a turtle in the wild will stop and eat poop, since he can just move on to look for something else to eat). If they're healthy, it won't hurt them. You might, however, keep a turkey baster handy to suck the poop up if it's small, or a net to get it out if you happen to see it. It will help keep the water cleaner.

[Mikerocosm]

I'm glad to read this.

I have 2 sliders and I've witnessed both of them eating their waste a few times now. I did some searches on the web to see if turtles were prone to coprophagia (poo-eating) like rabbits and some other animals but I couldn't find much.

I was worried that maybe thye were lacking nutrients.

-M

[marisa]

That could be the case, but this is so common with captive turtles that it wouldn't be the only reason.