For those who know, my last pet problem was with my pitt puppy who pottied in the house. That problem is almost gone. But now I have a new problem.

I purchased a Read Eared Slider to accompy my, what I think is, Western Painted Turtle. I named him Tarzan, which totally goes against his personality. He is shy and likes spending his time hiding. He watches my WPT bask and eat but he never basks himself. Only one have I seen him getting close to basking. But I have never seen him eat.
I feed both turtles at the same time, I feed them on opposites sides of the tank.

Little extra details:
20 gallon tank, filled half way up with water
Large floating area for them to bask
Filter
Small artifical plants
Small amount of gravel at the bottom

Thanks in advance!

I'm sorry, I wish I could help, but I don't know a darn thing about turtles.

What are you feeding them? The regular pet store pellets? When I had turtles (2 baby paints... both passed away a while ago... I miss them terribly!) they would never eat any form of pellet food I gave them. They would only eat live worms.... You have no idea how gruesome it could sometimes be when I would give those adorable little turtles a worm and suddenly they weren't so cute anymore, but were bloodthirsty ruthless beats! O_O

Ahem, I mean, um... Try a worm, maybe? '

You can get live bloodworms at some pet food stores.

o.o I've never had turtles but I do have a dog. I know they aren't necessarily the same but this is what I do with my dog when she doesn't eat. 1. I would change the food - maybe she doesn't like it or wants something new. We have plenty of food, dog and otherwise at home anyways. 2. I would hold the food out to her until she does eat it. It does get tiring but at least I know she's eating...

Have you tried taking him out to eat? Maybe he's not comfortable with the other one.

What are you feeding them? The regular pet store pellets? When I had turtles (2 baby paints... both passed away a while ago... I miss them terribly!) they would never eat any form of pellet food I gave them. They would only eat live worms.... You have no idea how gruesome it could sometimes be when I would give those adorable little turtles a worm and suddenly they weren't so cute anymore, but were bloodthirsty ruthless beats! O_O

I must be an absolute fool for never realizing what turtles eat... :think:

My red ear stops eating in the fall until spring. She hibernates. She's awake,but kind of goes into slow mode. It's just what they do in captivity. I've had her for 12 years. Next spring she is getting released into my friend's private pond to be free because she is a beast now. I had her since she was hatched. She keeps growing,and growing,and growing... :insane:

Keep the water super clean,and the best way to tell if a red ear is getting an infection is the eyes. Clear bright eyes= healthy. Cloudy eyes= vet visit. Turtles hide illness extremely well,and when it's discovered it's usually warranting a visit to your vet. I had to take her a few times for a bacterial infection from a scratch on her foot. She acted just the same as always except her eyes got cloudy. She had to get shots every other day for a week,but my vet fixed her up. :thumbup:

Another way to tell if something is wrong with his/her health is picking them up out of the water,letting them dry out and holding their face up to your ear- listen for clicking or popping sounds in their breathing. Any sounds of congestion,it shouldn't be there and respiratory problems will kill them and they will need antibiotic shots.

(I have had my red ear girl the longest,a couple other red ears I gave to people because I can't keep umpteen turtles,I have had box turtles,ball pythons,african clawed frogs and an iguana for 11 years. I reptiles and amphibians.)

Nanamixx wrote:

What are you feeding them? The regular pet store pellets? When I had turtles (2 baby paints... both passed away a while ago... I miss them terribly!) they would never eat any form of pellet food I gave them. They would only eat live worms.... You have no idea how gruesome it could sometimes be when I would give those adorable little turtles a worm and suddenly they weren't so cute anymore, but were bloodthirsty ruthless beats! O_O

I must be an absolute fool for never realizing what turtles eat... :think:

You are no fool! Every turtle and tortoise is different; some will eat pellets, some will not. Some will eat worms and other won't. Tortoises (the term 'turtle' has come to refer to all types of turtles, but I found out a while ago that 'turtle' refers to ones that live in water and 'tortoise' refers to ones that lives on land) mostly only eat vegetables and may only occasionally eat a bug or two, and turtles are the opposite; they mostly only eat bugs and will rarely eat veggies.

I'm a bit of a turtle nerd... I must have a turtle familiar or something because I am just drawn to them!

Zero wrote:What are you feeding them? The regular pet store pellets? When I had turtles (2 baby paints... both passed away a while ago... I miss them terribly!) they would never eat any form of pellet food I gave them. They would only eat live worms.... You have no idea how gruesome it could sometimes be when I would give those adorable little turtles a worm and suddenly they weren't so cute anymore, but were bloodthirsty ruthless beats! O_O

Ahem, I mean, um... Try a worm, maybe? '

I feed them Reptomin Baby Pellets. My WPT will eat them like no tomorrow, quite opposite from my RES. I have dried shrimp and he had some intrest in it, but he still didn't eat it. I plan on buying small worms for them to eat.

Ruby wrote:o.o I've never had turtles but I do have a dog. I know they aren't necessarily the same but this is what I do with my dog when she doesn't eat. 1. I would change the food - maybe she doesn't like it or wants something new. We have plenty of food, dog and otherwise at home anyways. 2. I would hold the food out to her until she does eat it. It does get tiring but at least I know she's eating...

Have you tried taking him out to eat? Maybe he's not comfortable with the other one.

I have tried taking him out and putting him in another container with food. He didn't seem intrested at the time so I left him in the warm water for about 30 minutes. He still didn't touch the food.