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shiny_chin
I got two baby turtles (pretty sure they are red eared sliders) from a friend who had bought them for his sister and his mother said no. Being the die-hard rescuer that I want to be, I offered to take them fully knowing that they would get expensive (so, please do not lecture me on that! ;]). However, I did not know that this friend had them for almost a week in the tiny traveling container that he had purchased them in. So, they went through a lot of trauma and became ill (very still, basking for hours on end, not eating, never opening their eyes, not responding to human touch, etc.) and we read up on how to best make them feel finally at home. They are starting to show signs of feeling better by swimming to different spots in their new large tank and resting there and then moving to a different spot with in an hour. So now my question! They aren't eating, still. How long will this last until they eat? Do they have to be fully healthy (is that possible without eating?) to want to eat food? We have tried the recommended pellet food, fresh carrot bits, and romaine lettuce we are trying now. Any suggestions?
Tank temp; 85+
Water temp; 70+
UVA and UVB lamps
Large basking area
shallow water for babies
Hiding places (for those stressful days lol)
Ten gallons for each baby plus an extra ten, tank
So, they've got a happy home now.
Thanks so much for any advice.
Answer
NO caves or hiding they get stuck and they are not bright enough to backout.
They NEED calcium and protein they get it from the fish meat and the fish bones. Drop 20 or so feeder guppies, goldfish or minnows in the tank and watch them disappear in a few days! The more they eat the healthier the turtle. When I got these two 36 yrs ago all we had in back then were goldfish to feed so after 36 yrs and still going strong. They can eat goldfish!
This way when they swim for their dinner they get exercise also!
TOSS in a bird cuttle bone in the water for calcium that will promote better shell growth, it will dissolve real slow and if they eat it thatâs fine!!
They can have garden worms, meal worms, snails, crickets, flies, crayfish small frogs, slugs, tadpoles dragon flies and anything that moves, but only as a treat.
They need leafy greens Romaine, Butter lettuce. (Iceberg and cabbage are bad for them, any other leafy greens will do) for vitamin A that they need at least 3 to 4 times a week.
They love grapes and strawberries and squash apples.
.**Swollen cloudy eyes which means lacking in Vitamin A. Which we all need for good eyes. Google âvegetables with Vitamin A.
Did you know that they need to bask under a reptile light UVA/UVB for up to 8 hrs a day for the vitamin D.
http://flickr.com/photos/29035692@N03/sets/72157608926864423/
my care for my two 36 yr olds sliders?
Aquatic are a life long commitment. I am no expert, just been blessed with 2 healthy girls for 36 yrs.
I wish you luck. I have been a mom to Two 36 yr old females for 36 long yrs.( plus an 8,5 and 2 yr old adopted males for the last 7 yrs now)
Remember 10 gallons for every inch of turtle.
I have used kiddy pools and plastic pond liners from most nurseries and now a 150 gal pond.
Two BABY turtles (not over 3â a piece) could have a 55 gallon tank to start. TO START Cause if they live youâll need 100 gallons soon.
And my pictures don't lie. All ages and all sizes get along as long as their is allot for swim room and plenty to eat!
Sliders, westerns, cooters , midland, painted, map, yellow bellied all are basically the same and require the same basic care.
Gravel larger than they can swallow
Leave the heater on 78 to 80 degrees always.
These turtles in captivity do not hibernate their eating may slow down some but they will not hibernate.
They will bite very very hard. Under 4" they carry a disease called 'salmonella'. So you must wash after every handling even the older ones too..
These guys can become cannibalistic and will kill the smallest turtle if there is not enough room and food.
Their water needs to be clean otherwise they get sick easily from dirty water cause they poop allot. You need a good filter system!
Total Body length: 5-8" average for males, up to 12 inches max for females. Life span: 15-25+ years
Males have the longer front nails and are used in mating. And are considered mature at about 5 yrs old. You canât start sexing till about 3â across.
They sleep at the bottom of rivers, streams. lakes or ponds or your tank to avoid predators like coyotes, foxes, owls, hawks, possums, raccoons and even some wide mouth bass and us humans.
They get sick easily, shell rot holes actually rotting through the shell, respiratory sickness, lopsided swimming, coughing, vomiting, blowing bubbles from their nose. Fungus white cotton patches on their skin, treat by adding a 1/4 of a cup of aquarium salt per 5 gallons to irritate and hopefully kill fungus. The addition of sulfa drugs such as those sold at pet stores under the name "Dr. Turtle" also should help kill fungus. Here is one source that sells Dr. Turtle. They also now sell a Sulfa dip by Zoo Med to treat bacteria and/or fungus.
Contact the âwww.anapsid.org/societies, for a turtle vet / RESCUE in your city and state or country..
NO caves or hiding they get stuck and they are not bright enough to backout.
They NEED calcium and protein they get it from the fish meat and the fish bones. Drop 20 or so feeder guppies, goldfish or minnows in the tank and watch them disappear in a few days! The more they eat the healthier the turtle. When I got these two 36 yrs ago all we had in back then were goldfish to feed so after 36 yrs and still going strong. They can eat goldfish!
This way when they swim for their dinner they get exercise also!
TOSS in a bird cuttle bone in the water for calcium that will promote better shell growth, it will dissolve real slow and if they eat it thatâs fine!!
They can have garden worms, meal worms, snails, crickets, flies, crayfish small frogs, slugs, tadpoles dragon flies and anything that moves, but only as a treat.
They need leafy greens Romaine, Butter lettuce. (Iceberg and cabbage are bad for them, any other leafy greens will do) for vitamin A that they need at least 3 to 4 times a week.
They love grapes and strawberries and squash apples.
.**Swollen cloudy eyes which means lacking in Vitamin A. Which we all need for good eyes. Google âvegetables with Vitamin A.
Did you know that they need to bask under a reptile light UVA/UVB for up to 8 hrs a day for the vitamin D.
http://flickr.com/photos/29035692@N03/sets/72157608926864423/
my care for my two 36 yr olds sliders?
Aquatic are a life long commitment. I am no expert, just been blessed with 2 healthy girls for 36 yrs.
I wish you luck. I have been a mom to Two 36 yr old females for 36 long yrs.( plus an 8,5 and 2 yr old adopted males for the last 7 yrs now)
Remember 10 gallons for every inch of turtle.
I have used kiddy pools and plastic pond liners from most nurseries and now a 150 gal pond.
Two BABY turtles (not over 3â a piece) could have a 55 gallon tank to start. TO START Cause if they live youâll need 100 gallons soon.
And my pictures don't lie. All ages and all sizes get along as long as their is allot for swim room and plenty to eat!
Sliders, westerns, cooters , midland, painted, map, yellow bellied all are basically the same and require the same basic care.
Gravel larger than they can swallow
Leave the heater on 78 to 80 degrees always.
These turtles in captivity do not hibernate their eating may slow down some but they will not hibernate.
They will bite very very hard. Under 4" they carry a disease called 'salmonella'. So you must wash after every handling even the older ones too..
These guys can become cannibalistic and will kill the smallest turtle if there is not enough room and food.
Their water needs to be clean otherwise they get sick easily from dirty water cause they poop allot. You need a good filter system!
Total Body length: 5-8" average for males, up to 12 inches max for females. Life span: 15-25+ years
Males have the longer front nails and are used in mating. And are considered mature at about 5 yrs old. You canât start sexing till about 3â across.
They sleep at the bottom of rivers, streams. lakes or ponds or your tank to avoid predators like coyotes, foxes, owls, hawks, possums, raccoons and even some wide mouth bass and us humans.
They get sick easily, shell rot holes actually rotting through the shell, respiratory sickness, lopsided swimming, coughing, vomiting, blowing bubbles from their nose. Fungus white cotton patches on their skin, treat by adding a 1/4 of a cup of aquarium salt per 5 gallons to irritate and hopefully kill fungus. The addition of sulfa drugs such as those sold at pet stores under the name "Dr. Turtle" also should help kill fungus. Here is one source that sells Dr. Turtle. They also now sell a Sulfa dip by Zoo Med to treat bacteria and/or fungus.
Contact the âwww.anapsid.org/societies, for a turtle vet / RESCUE in your city and state or country..
My baby Hedgehog died this morning, is the pet store at fault?
Eric
We had a beautiful little female baby hedgehog for about a week, and this morning I woke up to her clinging on to life. She was not sleeping in any of her shelters, which triggered an alarm for me, and her mouth was partially open and occationally wide open gasping for air. She passed away about an hour later in my hands.
Background: We got her from a local pet store in Albuquerque the day that they got them in. We spend over $200 to make sure she had everything she needed to be healthy. We had a water bottle AND a water dish, hedgehod food AND (softer) dry cat food in different dishes, a running wheel, 2 types of shelters with insulation, and toys in her cage. I moniter her food and water intake daily and it has been pretty constant, except for the past 24 hours. I noticed last night that she was still sleeping when I was going to bed, which is unusual (she is usually up and running on her wheel), and her feet were cold. I picked her up and warmed her on my stomach, under my shirt, for an hour until she was warm and more responsive. It only gets down to about 75 degrees in my room at night, and the swamp cooler keeps the house at about 82 during the heat of the day. I feel like I was a responsible first time hedgie owner by becoming as educated as I could before purchasing, so I dont know if it is something that likely started before we got her, or if I did not provide proper care, or if her immune system was just not strong enough. I have only had her for about a week but me and my fiance are very shaken up over it. There was one other male at the pet store and I want to warn them to take him to the vet if it is possible that he could be sick too. If you feel that I was not at fault, please let me know, I could use the re-assurance. I have read several atricles that support the possibility of an illness that turns into pneumonia, and that once they get pneumonia they have very little chance of survival and almost no chance of full recovery. What do you think I should tell the pet store when I call? They are very nice people there and I'm sure they would want to know that their baby girl didnt make it.. I dont want a refund because we already had a funeral for her in the yard, but should I ask for another Hedgie? Thanks for taking the time to read this long question, when you respond please take into consideration that I am truely grieving for this poor little girl.
Answer
Please accept our condolences on the death of your baby hedgehog. Unfortunately, this happens far too frequently due to the way in which pet African hedgehogs have had to travel in North America. Originally, Central African hedgehogs were overpopulating (and getting run over, starving to death, etc.) in northern Nigeria around the city of Kano. Groups were rounded up in 1991, brought to Lagos, Nigeria and offered to animal exporters, and the first air shipment of 2,000 hedgehogs to NYC sold in the pet wholesale market. After that, some 80,000 Central African and Algerian hedgehogs made their way to the USA and about 1993 they became "fad" pets. In 1994, the USDA placed a quarantine on live animals coming from African nations, which made further imports not practical. At that time, the price of a breeding pair went as high as $5,000, which brought in a hoard of profiteers, who did a lot of inbreeding to make money from these unfortunate animals. In 1997 a Registry was started to assist ethical breeders in only breeding hedgehogs from bloodlines clear of fatal hereditary illnesses.
Today, we would recommend only obtaining a hedgehog from a breeder member of the Hedgehog Breeders Alliance (HBA), who must comply with a very exacting Code of Ethics (read it on their web site). HBA breeder member hedgehogs generally sell for between $150 and $250, but the price is well worth it when you consider their guarantees, aftercare, and the fact that they only breed registered hedgehogs from known and clear blood lines. I do not know of any HBA breeders that will sell hedgehogs to pet stores, and most have a waiting list for babies. Pet stores generally obtain their hedgehogs from wholesalers who pay no attention whatsoever to a hedgehogs background. Accordingly, there is always a risk that a hedgehog obtained from a pet store is going to succumb to a preexisting health condition. In reading your explanation, it seems to me that there was probably nothing you could have done in this case.
Best wishes, Z. G. Standing Bear at The Flash and Thelma Memorial Hedgehog Rescue in Divide, Colorado USA
Please accept our condolences on the death of your baby hedgehog. Unfortunately, this happens far too frequently due to the way in which pet African hedgehogs have had to travel in North America. Originally, Central African hedgehogs were overpopulating (and getting run over, starving to death, etc.) in northern Nigeria around the city of Kano. Groups were rounded up in 1991, brought to Lagos, Nigeria and offered to animal exporters, and the first air shipment of 2,000 hedgehogs to NYC sold in the pet wholesale market. After that, some 80,000 Central African and Algerian hedgehogs made their way to the USA and about 1993 they became "fad" pets. In 1994, the USDA placed a quarantine on live animals coming from African nations, which made further imports not practical. At that time, the price of a breeding pair went as high as $5,000, which brought in a hoard of profiteers, who did a lot of inbreeding to make money from these unfortunate animals. In 1997 a Registry was started to assist ethical breeders in only breeding hedgehogs from bloodlines clear of fatal hereditary illnesses.
Today, we would recommend only obtaining a hedgehog from a breeder member of the Hedgehog Breeders Alliance (HBA), who must comply with a very exacting Code of Ethics (read it on their web site). HBA breeder member hedgehogs generally sell for between $150 and $250, but the price is well worth it when you consider their guarantees, aftercare, and the fact that they only breed registered hedgehogs from known and clear blood lines. I do not know of any HBA breeders that will sell hedgehogs to pet stores, and most have a waiting list for babies. Pet stores generally obtain their hedgehogs from wholesalers who pay no attention whatsoever to a hedgehogs background. Accordingly, there is always a risk that a hedgehog obtained from a pet store is going to succumb to a preexisting health condition. In reading your explanation, it seems to me that there was probably nothing you could have done in this case.
Best wishes, Z. G. Standing Bear at The Flash and Thelma Memorial Hedgehog Rescue in Divide, Colorado USA
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