red ear with injuries

[Tsarmina]

hi people,

my red ear girl has what looks to be grazing on one of her front legs. she tries not to use it.

what can be used to treat it as i don't want infection to set in.

thanks

[Insect Direct]

Id add abit of salt to the water, theyre pretty hardy it should come right but would pay to figure out what caused it so it doesnt happen again!

[Tsarmina]

i beleive it was the male, either getting too frisky and her saying no or fightinng over food, though i do put in enough for both and separate them, they still like to go for the same piece.

[repto]

as mincie says common salt at one teaspoon /4.5 litres water will clear it up in no time,heated tank,I presume?

[Tsarmina]

yes the tank is heated.

can someone also tell me, at what size are they considered adult?

thanks

[Insect Direct]

Generally (& I could be wrong) 3-5years old they can breed and take an unheatered tank/pond etc.

But i think size is more of an indicator as this can vary hugely if kept in good/not so good conditions, so my geuss is males 12cm+ and females 15-20+ but dont hold me to that, thats just lookin at a ruler and taken a geuss!

The best way to tell would probably be when you end up with eggs in the tank!

[repto]

eggs in the sand would be better??

[Insect Direct]

eggs in the sand would be better??

lol yes but can easily be missed :lol:

[livingart]

lol yes but can easily be missed

when you set up your sand put a layer of a different colour down about 100mm (4 inches)

when you see it on top you know they have dug and covered it up

[repto]

sand is in fact a pain to know where they have layed,i use it now but constantly vow to change it but never do as it is such a mamoth task.A friend of mine did the layer of limesand trick but it only worked for the first year.I used to have river silt at my old place and it was ideal as you could just hose the surface and it would dry to a hard crust,once disturbed you could tell at a glance.Now with the sand I just get what I can and after a while dig over the whole area slowly,a bit embarassing when you find 80 eggs,plus you don`t know how old they are etc etc.

[Insect Direct]

when you set up your sand put a layer of a different colour down about 100mm (4 inches)

when you see it on top you know they have dug and covered it up

True thats a good idea mine was sorta like that a couple of years ago i had sand on top and gravel about 4inchs down so could sorta tell when it had been disturbed but after me diggin around every other week it was soon a mess!

I even had a security camera on the laying bed at 1 stage but still missed them but if had it recording i could of skimmed over it but still thats abit over the top i rekon.

So now mine no longer have access to a sand bed and i just let em out in the garden when theyre ready to lay (which is relatively easy to tell) and they soon dig a hole an drop there eggs but still can be time consuming and easy to have turtles wondering off lol

I rekon it would be neat to have a huge hot house setup with sand areas with heating cables underneath (if only power wasnt so darn expensive :roll: ) so you could just leave the eggs to hatch, would be nice and natural and neat to see the turtles coming up out of the ground, but would be abit sad when they made it to the water and daddy had a feast :lol:

[livingart]

but would be abit sad when they made it to the water and daddy had a feast

and mummy too :oops:

[alanmin4304]

I keep mine in a seperate tank when they are ready to lay and can tell from their behaviour when they are going to lay. They always lay in the same spot as it is close to the window and is the warmest area of sand.