help! my new turtle has a runny tummy :(

[Turtle_Crazy]

Yesterday, while feeding my turts in the feeding rubbermaid, my little one, Soup took a solid #2 then had a very wet #2, so i changed the water, keeping it very close to the temp it was and then she had another wet one again. this has been going on all yesterday and some of lastnite. ive been changing the water everytime and their diet this past week has been as follows : most to littlest amounts:
-spring mix
-romaine
-endive: ^---all three available most times
-defrosted mixed veggies
-spirulina pellets
-a strawberry coated in rep-cal every three days
-chopped papaya, and cantelope
-feeder guppies
-a mixture of reptomin/mazuri/wardley/gammarus pellets

im thinking it may be the mixed veggies, do i need to cook these before i offer them? (feels bad)
Should i quarantine the little one?, the big girl is having solid ones still.

Thanks for helping:dumb:

Nicole

[lostwithin]

No, you shouldn’t have too cook mixed veggies I use frozen green beans for my veggie eaters I just thaw them out. Although some veggies in mix's could be left out. Also romaine lettuce has very poor nutritional value. Most lettuces are better off left out of diets. here is a good web site for veggies...http://www.greenigsociety.org/foodchart.htm

Hope that helps.

Devon

[elfomatic]

It should be noted that that site is about iguana nutrition ... while the values of the nutrients may be the same, the recommendations shouldn't necessarily be carried over to aquatic turtles. When it comes to aquatic turtles leafy greens do comprise a good part of the plant matter section of the diet. Other veggies are a big part too ... but frozen ones and cooked ones can sometimes lose nutritional value. If you want to talk about what is really best for them though then try something natural such as duckweed or water lettuce. :)

I have a question though ... how do you know it was a wet #2 if she was in water? I guess you saw it fall apart or something?

Overall, I think your diet choices are great but it may be the fruit that is making her a little loose. Fruits are just better left out of aquatic diets or only offered as an occasional treat. They can cause mild diarrhea.

[Turtle_Crazy]

i think i would follow your advice as to what i can feed my turtles, because you sound very experienced. the turtles #2 was like liquid. The fruits could be the culprit but do you think it could have been the raw corn in the mixed veggies? i gave it to them twice and they seem to really go for it and i think i might have given them too much? also, must i quarantine my little one?

the little one im talking about was found wandering dry for what seems like a couple months, she is a bit skinny and im wondering if all this new food might be getting to her and she can't digest it right?

[elfomatic]

You know, I forgot you said that Soup was wild for a while ... that could very well be the reason for the diarrhea. Since she was wandering in the wild it's possible that the cause is parasitic rather than dietary ...

That doesn't change the fact that you should cut down on the fruits .. LOL :) Sugars found in fruits actually help parasites to florish so you may be compounding the issue further without even knowing it.

I've experienced my tortoises being kind of loose when they need to be dewormed. Usually it clears right up after a treatment.

Has the turtle been taken to the vet for a deworming? I don't know if you mentioned that before in one of your previous posts.

The skinniness also leads me to believe that parasites might be the culprit ... how is Soup's appetite compared to your other turtle's?

Don't worry too much ... deworming is a pretty easy thing to do if you haven't done it yet ... Just go to your herp vet and bring along a stool sample. Heck, you can even check for parasites yourself if you have one of those cheap kiddy microscopes ...

The only trick with aquatic turtles is to not reinfect ... that means that if soup gets dewormed then your other turtle has to get dewormed at the same time (so bring them both to the vet) and you have to disinfect the tank at the same time you deworm so they don't reinfect themselves ...

Parasites normally aren't an ailment of aquatic turtles kept in captivity (hence your other turtle's healthiness) but since soup was exposed to all sorts of other things in the wild then it could be a problem for you. And that fruit really could be stirring things up ... well, make an appt. with a herp vet and let me know what happens!

[Samba]

If both turtles are eating the same diet, and only one is experiencing discomfort from it, it's possible that there could be another, underlying issue. I read above that Soup was once wild, and as stated previously, there may need to be more investigation into that. I would take the fecal samples to a vet for an exam and see what turns up. Good luck with them!

[K1LOS]

most spring mix contains baby spinach. Spinach is not good for reptiles. Try removing the strawberries and spinach from the diet and get back to us.

Try raising the water temperature for a few days to help speed up the recovery process.

p.s: the spinach are the round ones with a short stem portruding from teh bottom of the leaf.


Geoff