New Member with painted Turtle Questions

[danielle]

I've never joined a forum before but I have wanted to so that I can discuss issues on housing aquatic turtles with other people who do so. I have two western painted turtles and sometimes have a lot of questions regarding their care. I have had one of them for a year now and the younger one I got last October.

Maybe there is somebody in this forum who could answer some of the following questions:

For some reason each of my two turtles (at separate times) have gone through a period of time about a month or so where they stop eating. This seems to have happened after a growth period. My older turtle stopped eating at the end of last October until the beginning of December. She would still swim each day but spent more time basking and not interested in eating.

Then when she began eating again a couple of months later my younger turtle did the same thing. She just started eating again last week. this turtle was quite small when I got her and she grew like cray last fall. She has scutes which have bubbled and look ready to shed but she has not shed any over the last three months like my other turtle did last summer. Is this going to be a problem, should I be concerned? She appears to be quite healthy as she is quite active and alert.

My second questions is the strange behavior between the two turtles which makes me wonder if I don't have two females but one male. Either one will start a courting dance with the other turtle sometimes. I was pretty sure I had two females or are they just going thru the motions because they are the only two turtles in their tank or should I expect to prepare for baby turtles?

[joeysgreen]

It is not uncommon for decreased or ceased feeding in the winter months. It is a good idea to monitor weights, but the main thing is that they continue normal behavior, and are active and alert.

For your scute question, I don't usually describe them as having bubbled, so I don't know if what you are seeing is normal or not. A picture might help, but a hands on look would be best. I'm sure you'll find some Saskers that arn't to far from you on this forum In general though, with any shell problems, the cause and fix are all water quality related. The cleaner the better.

For courting behavior, you might see some nipping, biting and mounting, but perhaps the behavior most obviously related to courting is the fanning of the fingers in front of the female. Your male would be doing this, and to sex painteds the males nails on his forefeet will be quite long, perhaps two to three times the length of the females. Males are also smaller, sometimes more colourfull, and have a longer, thicker tail (obviously so). The vent is also further from the shell on the male.

I hope this helps

Ian

[joeysgreen]

Here are some painted turtle pic's I took last weekend in Penticton. I snorkeled for the first time and had a blast seeing these guys in the water where they really shine

Ian

[danielle]

How do you post pics on the forum, I some pictures of my turtles that I would like to include.

Thanks for the tips, regarding the courting dance I haven't seen any nipping or biting but I have noticed both turtles displaying the fanning of the nails at different times.

[joeysgreen]

for pic's, first you need to upload them to the net to a hosting sight. I use photobucket, it's free. Then when you reply (not quick reply) press the image button, and copy and past the url to your picture inbetween the tags that appear.

Ian

[alex]

My map turtles often look like they have small air bubbles under the scutes but generally only in the central area (they're young and growing so have that first scute retained)
As long as their scutes are hard and don't feel bubbly, I wouldn't worry. You can try gently peeling them off, but gentle is the key word - if it's not really easy, don't keep trying or use anything other than a fingernail