hello fellow terrapin/turtle owner

i'm quite new in the hobby so i might come in from time to time for advices (hope u guys can bear with newbies).

recently i got myself a baby RES from LFS. well.. u know those small RES usually being sold. yes i did my part for some research and getting myself ready for the commitment in hope my RES could have better days in his/her (i dont know the gender ) future life.

a little starter question tho that i might need some inputs from the experienced keeper:

1) i got provide UVB light but my RES seems not interested to bask under it. just once a while. it prefer to stay half body under water and half out. sometimes climb other rock on the other side of the enclosure for rest and get dry, but not under the UVB light. how can I encourage it to bask there? should i be worried?

2) the baby RES hardly taking his greens. provided with fresh salad at all time been made available for it. pellets as staple diet which he's eating okay but not as much. he likes the canned worms and brine a lot (he'll eat a lot when given these). provided once or twice a week only as treats. is this normal? will it cause problem in his health?

3) i got the calcium (no D3) powder thing. how the way i could provide this to him? he's rarely touch salad and the pellets, he only eat after soaked and become soft. he wont eat while it's still hard. can please suggest to me on what should i sprinkle the calcium so he will eat and get enough calcium in his diet? or should i feed something else? the brine everyday? please recommend.

heh, that's all for now and more to come definitely. hahaha!

thanks in advance

The size is about 1.5in only. Still small. Dun want him get into unhealthy state at his age tho. I'll be damned.

Any suggestion on "teaching proper diet" for his age?

Yes. Canned worms (bloodworms) and brine (brine shrimps) hv high protein so i try not to make it as staple diet. Read it before not to make these as main food. But i also read that baby RES are more towards carnivorous until at certain age, they'll switch to be more vegetarian later.

But at his age now, especially if i hv to provide calcium supplement, what can i give him so he can eat "normally" everyday so i can sprinkle the calcium on it?

Currently i only feed pellets (2-3 pellets everyday and that's only amount he will touch). Is this normal too? But his appetite will be like eating machine when give brine shrimps/bloodworms and i thought too often of these is not good for him, no?

This post has been edited by usermode: Oct 28 2016, 11:10 PM

It's ok mate. Any input from anyone will be highly appreciated.

I did tried mix the bloodworms and vege, but my RES so smart, he just take the worms and leave the salad untouched. Maybe a bite, but he'll carefully pull those worms out from the mix on the next bites. zzzz...

Oh, hope ur leopard get well soon too.

Wanna ask, my RES got these white/silverish (light-reflected) spots on its shell and also got some under the belly. Should i be worried about this? What are these and why it happens?

Some additional info:
- saw some skin shedding recently (a week + ago) at neck and tail but almost finish/done.
- eats, bask and aware very well.


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ah.. thanks for the reply. from the link given i stumbled into this one: http://www.redearslider.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=32906
and i think my RES have similar issue to this one instead.

I'm gonna do the iodine and neosporin treatment and see if it helps (and i hope i do it right).