Anyone here have experience with reptiles?

[DarkXerox]

Well a little offtopic, but it does relate to aquariums! Anyways, I've had my malaysian box turtle for about 12+ years now and he has always been a sort of odd duck when it came to food. I've never been able to get him to eat pellets or vegetables, but he eats fresh fish, shrimp, or certain fruit. As of last year, he started developing a bit of dermatitis or some other skin issue and one of my professors who's husband is a behavioral endocinologist that studies reptiles said that it was likely a water condition issue. However, it got better until he started biting at his sides and opening wounds, so I had to drain his tank and keep him dry until he healed. I sterilized his sides with betadine as he suggested and he healed up well after a few weeks.

Unfortunately, he continued his biting behavior, but only when he was bouyant, so I tried keeping the water level low. However, this made water changes difficult again, and I'm looking for some way of making him stop. I'm getting to the point where I would likely give or trade him away to someone who has more experience than me, just so that he is better taken care of.

So let me know if any of you are also reptile buffs and know what I should do. Thanks!

 

[MorandiWine]

Take him to a reptile vet! Thats my suggestion, it could be any number of issues. Nervous system, malnutrition, growths or who knows what else. But better to leave it to an expert then to have a mess of people quess at what might be wrong.

tyler

 

[Patio]

Sorry to hear. Tyler is right. You could always ask the vivarium in berkley. they are one of the best stores i know, also appeared on myth busters.

Not quite a buff but I do breed high end leopard geckos.

 

[Conky]

Ever think about adding some salt to his water? If the problem is not simply behavioral, maybe he does have some irritation. Salt should help to soothe him a bit. Worth a shot.

 

[DarkXerox]

Yeah I was hoping someone here was a reptile fanatic and would have seen this before since there is a good chance I would have let him or her take my turtle. I'm gonna be leavin for grad school after this summer, so I'm pretty sure I'd want to find him another home. (parents are better at keeping my SPS/mixed tank than the turtle haha, go figure).

 

[merseyman]

... the Vivarium will buy reptiles sometimes.

 

[DarkXerox]

yeah I really dont want to leave him at a "LRS" (local reptile store lol)...

 

[DDot]

you some take it to Vivarium that where i took my boas when it got to big and they will find it a nice home and there the best in the bay for repital imo

 

[DetectiveTofu]

if you had leopard geckos I might be able to help =P

 

[merseyman]

... the Vivarium is world known. 90% chance they'd take better care of him than you, no offense. They know their $#@!

 

[Al G Blenny]

I don't know much about turtles but I used to keep lots of different reptiles. If you want to make your tank easier to clean you can drill a hole on the bottom of the tank and put a bulkhead in it. Then you put a ball valve and some vinyl tube on it. That makes it easy to drain the water to the very bottom and you don't need to plug in a pump or start a siphon.

For the biting you might want to get him one of those cone collars. =p

 

[Sk8r]

Could even be a fungus or something causing a persistent itch.