How big is your turtle? 7.7 lbs
How long have you had it? 20 years but she is 30 something
What is the water temperature? 76
Did you use a thermometer? yes
Are you using a water heater? yes
How much water is in there? 45
Are you using a water conditioner? yes
Are you using any filtration? yes
What is the basking temperature? don't know
Is there a basking light? there is a ceramic heat emitter
Is there a basking platform that is easy to climb on? yes
What kind is it or what is it made out of? it's one of those fake turtle logs
Is there a UVB light? yes
What have you been trying to feed it? she gets Omega One Turtle food and red leaf lettuce
When was the last time your turtle ate? few days ago
How big is the tank/pond/enclosure? 75 gallons
Is the tank near a window? yes
Is the tank in a room with a lot of activity? no
Have you read the Basic Care section? yes
Have you searched the forums for similar situations? yes
Hey all, I have a bit of an update on my girl Cecil and I wasn't quite sure where to post this as it all still seems to be a mystery. To recap quickly, at the end of April she started to seem to not be eating as much. I had been wondering if she was losing her sight a bit but I don't think that's the case. In the beginning of May I began to wonder if maybe she had eggs because she still wasn't eating that much so I took her in for an x-ray but there were no eggs. We also did blood work at that time, specialized blood work for her that also tested her calcium/phosphorous levels and everything came back perfect. But for the whole month of May her behavior has been really weird. She hasn't eaten that much. She's hardly basked at all. She mostly just swims constantly and I've also seen her kind of scootching her back end/squeezing her hind legs together but I don't think she's constipated. I've seen her poop plus she hasn't eaten that much, plus the x-ray did not show anything unusual. She's also showing aggressive behavior which is mostly uncommon for her. Typically she's a very friendly gal with me but lately she rams the side of her tank trying to get me whenever I walk past. Usually she only gets like that when I clean her tank but right now she's doing it just for the heck of it, it seems.
So anyway, because I'm worried, I took her back to the vet this week and again she has a clean bill of health. No eggs, vet says she looks fantastic, somehow she even gained a whole pound which is a lot for a turtle. We did another x-ray and this time sent it off to a special reptile radiologist and he said everything looked good. So we're stumped. The vet doesn't want to just arbitrarily do antibiotics because there's no evidence of an infection. She suggested dry docking her for two hours a day since she's not basking on her own which I will do but I was just wondering if anyone else here has ever experienced stuff like this.
And before you ask, there's been no changes to her environment at all nor any changes to our daily schedules/habits. Everything is exactly the same.
So when not gravid, what could cause these behavior issues? And how on earth does a turtle gain a whole pound when barely eating? I miss my sweet basking princess and I worry that she's not happy. All that swimming and aggression can't be mentally healthy for her.
Thoughts?