I might have lost my mind, but.............
We prepared our pond (300 gallons) for a Western Painted turtle.
I was going to order a juvenile soon.
Went to Petsmart to get dog food and passes their single turtle and stopped when I noticed the orange color. A Western Painted! Something looked very wrong.
I had the you g lady open the glass door and I picked him up. His head hung down.
Shell seemed to b perfect. His eyes were mainly open.
He did not move. He was only fed pellets.
The young lady told me he must be hibernating. I had a nice talk with her about turtles and gave her some information.
I bought him, because he was so sick!
When I got home and really looked him over, I noticed that he is completely emaciated. He has no meat on him at all.
In water he floated and did not move his legs at all.
I put various pellets in the water - Not interested
After trying many things, I tried brine shrimp - bingo!! His name is Shrimpy.
Today he happily ate 2 guppies, that were pre killed.
He moved his legs a little bit, in deeper water today.
He was out in the sun for 4 hours and has a Powersun in his temp enclosure.
Hopefully I can nurse him back to health.
He looks like he never ate in captivity. Poor Shrimpy!
I will keep him warm, fed and he will get plenty of UVB.
Any advice appreciated.
We prepared our pond (300 gallons) for a Western Painted turtle.
I was going to order a juvenile soon.
Went to Petsmart to get dog food and passes their single turtle and stopped when I noticed the orange color. A Western Painted! Something looked very wrong.
I had the you g lady open the glass door and I picked him up. His head hung down.
Shell seemed to b perfect. His eyes were mainly open.
He did not move. He was only fed pellets.
The young lady told me he must be hibernating. I had a nice talk with her about turtles and gave her some information.
I bought him, because he was so sick!
When I got home and really looked him over, I noticed that he is completely emaciated. He has no meat on him at all.
In water he floated and did not move his legs at all.
I put various pellets in the water - Not interested
After trying many things, I tried brine shrimp - bingo!! His name is Shrimpy.
Today he happily ate 2 guppies, that were pre killed.
He moved his legs a little bit, in deeper water today.
He was out in the sun for 4 hours and has a Powersun in his temp enclosure.
Hopefully I can nurse him back to health.
He looks like he never ate in captivity. Poor Shrimpy!
I will keep him warm, fed and he will get plenty of UVB.
Any advice appreciated.