When I got Frankie, I (wrongly) assumed that she would adhere to the same schedule.
In the evening, she's always basking. I thought if I put the pellets in the water, she would see them and head down (she loves her Reptomin). That didn't work. So, I tried picking her up and putting her partway down the ramp, and figured she would go the rest of the way. Well, I tell you, she didn't like that! She put her legs down and dug into the ramp, then turned around and stomped back up to the platform and glared at me!
She much preferred to stay up on the platform all night, and in the morning, pick what was left of the pellets off the filter intake. Now, this is obviously a waste of pellets, since by the time she gets to them, half of them are already in the filter.
Once or twice I fed her in the morning, when she was in the water, but this doesn't work for me, since I'm usually running off to school. Plus, I try not to bend (too much) to my turtles' wills.
So, next thing I tried was to scoop out some kibbles, and drop them into the water in front of her. She would look up at the spoon, then down at the kibbles as the swirled below. Still wasn't enough to get her in the water.
I noticed (on one of the rare occasions she was in the water when I went to feed her) that she still wasn't too comfortable with swimming. I also noticed that a lot of food collects under her basking platform, and she never goes on that side of the tank. So the other night, I built her a second underwater platform, exactly the same as the other one I've posted before, but a bit smaller.
So tonight, I was determined to get her in the water eating.
First, I tried holding a plastic spoon with a few kibbles in it in front of her. She was intrigued, but didn't entirely trust me.
So next, I put down the spoon in front of her, and hid out of sight. After a few minutes of very careful inspection, she took a bite, and ended up with a couple kibbles hanging out of her mouth. Unfortunately, she also knocked the spoon into the water. Some of the kibbles went between the egg crate and plexiglass that make up her platform. She could see them and smell them, but couldn't get at them. So I went back in and scooped the spoon out of the tank, and tried to think of another way to get some kibbles in her mouth.
Then I saw a piece of lettuce floating near the ramp.
I put a few kibbles on the lettuce, and put the lettuce in front of her and leave the room. I watched her for about 5 more minutes. She took a bite, but she also got the lettuce in her mouth, which she didn't like. She ripped it out of her mouth, and the kibbles went with it. Luckily, there was still a couple kibbles stuck to the lettuce. She took another nip, and ended up with a kibble hanging out of her mouth. She kind of looked around like, "Now what?" And the kibble dropped out of her mouth. I watched her for another minute or two trying to pick the kibble up from under the eggcrate, then I gave up on her.
Well, 5 minutes later, I checked in on her again, and she was in the water, using her new platform eating
I'm hoping this trick will continue to work to get her in the water at dinner time!
Wow, that was a long winded post o.O
Condensed version of above: Frankie goes in the water to eat.
