My pet turtle bit my other pet turtle

Filed under habitat, my pet turtles, photos, red ear slider turtles, turtle pictures, turtle tank, turtles

I noticed that my female red eared slider, Cinderella, was looking a little bit bigger since I last measured my turtles size about three weeks ago. And so I picked both my turtles up and compared them side by side like so:

This is a painted rendition (through Paint.net) of two different older pictures. I didn’t actually take any photos of the incident.
pet RES turtles plastron to plastron painted

So anyway, I held my turtles up plastron to plastron (or bottom/belly shell to bottom/belly shell) and noticed that Cinderella had indeed grown and that she was now a little bit bigger. Very quickly, she stretched her whole neck and angled her head downward, kinda like so:

how my pet turtle bit my other red eared slider turtle

…and she delivered a very quick bite to the face of poor Rex. She bit his face!! I was so shocked.

I immediately got flashbacks of how she had been mean to him in the past:

  • While Rex would bask, she would purposefully go to him and push him off the platform
  • While Rex would do anything peacefully, she’d come over and push him
  • She’d go up to him, only to swim away and kick him in the face
  • Many, many attempts to bite him his legs, tail, and face

Rex managed to get even by eating more food at feeding time – which I thwarted by feeding my turtles separately.

After noticing that almost every time I watched them there was at least one bite attempt, I decided it was time to keep the pet turtles separated for good before one of them lost a tail or otherwise drew blood. I can see that there is no chance that I’m going to ever keep the turtles together in the future.

Rex’s chin/throat area was a light pink from the bite. I put them both down and gave Rex some treats (freeze dried crickets!!). He was very scared to eat them by hand, which is how I usually give them, so I left them on the water for him to eat.

Rex is fine now and is swimming around like a happy turtle.

Now his throat/chin area is slightly pink, with a tuft of loose skin (looks like shedding) right over the spot. It looks like he has a goatee!!

Here are some pictures of Rex several hours after he got bit on the face by Cinderella, my female red eared slider. Please note that it is very difficult to take accurate looking photos. Without the flash, the photos are too dark and blurry. With the flash, everything looks brighter and whiter so you can’t see the pinkness or the bunch of loose skin on his throat area that looks like a goatee. This means that the bite area/pink area and loose skin on the throat look a lot less in terms of both color and quantity – and you almost can’t see them. Because the flash drowns out the details, I added arrows to each picture to help identify the pink areas/ loose skin goatee.


(you can see some later and better photos here: pet red ear slider turtle’s bite mark)

And that’s why I continue to keep them separated.


Related posts:
  • my pet red ear slider turtle’s bite mark
  • pet turtles reaching over, wanting to fight, bite & flutter
  • my pet turtles need new basking platforms
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    14 Comments for this entry

    • forlogos
      September 25th, 2009 on 7:04 pm

      thanks Michelle!! I know you didn’t choose your Monster ID (the avatar you have next to your comment) – but that is one cool avatar you got!

      Reply
    • jumbodogs
      October 8th, 2009 on 3:23 am

      Thanks for sharing. My smaller sized turtle used to bite on my bigger one’s turtle. The big one hardly fight back until recently. I notice the smaller sized turtle was injured here and there. Therefore, I was thinking to replace with a bigger tank. After reading your post, separating into 2 tank is the best solution for both! Thanks for sharing!

      Reply
    • erin
      February 24th, 2010 on 11:27 am

      Hey, I have a quick question. I have two turtles, they are both very very young. One is much bigger than the other and bites the little one on the tail, which is a little nub since the day we got them. He’ll bite the tail and then pull him off the basking rock and into the water and just hold him there like he’s torturing him! But this is the ONLY aggressive thing that happens! They will bask together and the big one allows the little one to sleep on his back. What do you think is going on? Should I separate them?

      Thanks

      Reply
    • Travieza
      May 19th, 2010 on 11:26 am

      Hey i have da same situatuin herer nd i need some help??? i went to da veterinarian nd they told that maybe im not feeding them nd well i feed them evryday with all types of turtle food….. but my female turtle is biting my male turle foot nd i had to seperate them before she tears his foot LoL!!!!

      Thanx
      TRAVIEZA

      Reply
    • seth marion
      May 21st, 2010 on 12:41 am

      i have two res and they get along great. they bask together share there food and sit real close when they sleep.

      Reply
    • Darlene
      August 1st, 2010 on 7:24 pm

      I have two pet yellow sliders and the female bite the male badly the mouth and nose and eye area I sperated them and the male isn’t eating. do u have any advise on what to do to get the male healty again? PLEASE HELP

      Reply
      • forlogos
        August 2nd, 2010 on 11:25 pm

        how bad is the pet turtle bite damage? If it is very bad take your pet turtle to a qualified reptile vet right away.

        Otherwise, your male turtle will heal quickly and will resume eating after a little while.

        Reply

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