I might be over exagerating but my eastern long neck turtle is not eating her food.
its been a week of not eating since today when i fed her, i normally hand feed them not minding if they bite my fingers, but aLL she did was take a bite and not even get any food then just leave it. i ke4pt on trying to give it to her but she wont accept it. i have had her for around three weeks and has accept food happily but since this week she does not eat and soon the other turtle eats her food.

i feed them frozen fish, square pieces of frozen beef and square pieces of turtle dinner. its made by fish fuel company i think, its and australian company.

so does anyone know whats wrong i see no sickness, or maybe is the fodd to big for her, or maybe she doesnt like the taste.

Reptiles do sometimes take the odd few days off eating, its not that unusual, and its not necessarily a sign of a problem.

Most feeding issues and refusal of foods are down to water temperature and the availability of direct basking heat, occassionally stress, or even grvidity. Whats your water temp at the moment, and do the turtles have a basking light yet??

thanks for answering so quickly.

yes the turtles have a basking light you might have thought it was just a normal but its both. it even says on the box.

the tempreature is 24.5 celsius which is good for turtles. and you said grividity as in gravid im not ready yet.

ok just and update my turtle is eating but only the fish, im not sure if i should stop feeding her the red meats and get different types of white meats for her or should i keep trying with red meats, any advice would be great.

Your species is a fish predator, if shes taking fish theres no problem. Most of the red meats are a little fatty, so its probably a good idea to turn to poultry , like frozen day old chicks, and try shrimp too. Im sure a few small yabbies would probably make her week.

Actually I was wondering how shes doing as regards basking facilities, I cant remember if you said she had a spotlight available or not. Does she have one, or just a striplight?

ok thats like ive said before my dad has a farm in the country and we get crowded with yabbies in summer(could i add them to the pond for them)

i dont have a spotlight but i do take her outside evry fe hours a day to receive sunlight its only a few more days before the ponds finish and i dont get the point of buying a spotlight when i only use it for a few days.

Thats because you clearly dont understand thermoregulation yet. Reptiles govern their temperature minute by minute,and hour by hour,. Indoors with the absense of a warm spot to bask in you will be affecting her digestion, causing her gastrointestinal distress, affecting the calcium she can absorb that she sorely needs for shell integrity, and if the becomes gravid her eggs wont develop normally, she could become egg bound and die. Her going off food is an early sign. Get her a spotlight dude, something to bask under. Thermoregulation isnt optional, its essential. It should be available to her 12 hours a day at least, taking outdoors for a couple of hours doesnt cut it.

Seriously, long term,the lack of a regular basking facility will probably kill her, make her more susceptible to illness, lead her to metablic bone disease, cause her problems with sloughing skin and scutes (another problem youve had- how many warning from her did you want?) and almost certainly knock years off her life. Its far more significant than you think it is, and cannot be ignored or just fluffed past.

Get a spotlight.

ok ill get her a spotlight but the strip light works in the same way.

Thats the thing, striplights and spotlights do not work the same way. Not unless the reptile happens to be a tiny gecko capable of sitting on a striplight it doesnt.

Striplights give off some ambient heat but do not work as a focused basking area for heat. For UVB and UVA exposure theyre fine, thats what theyre designed for , but they wont be providing a focused basking spot to get the reptiles blood temps into the 90's where they should be for much of the day. Youre supposed to have both, not one or the other. A lot of people make that mistake, its wrong to have just strips or just spots with diurnal reptiles, youre supposed to have both to create a thermal gradient, and some UVB and UVA exposure at the same time. Heat, UVA and UVB are all supposed to be available simultaeniously.

Most turtles are supposed to have water in the 70's , ambient air temps in the early 80's, and a focused basking spot of around 90-95f. Its that range of temps that keeps them healthy.

ok i get it now spotlights give more heat on a certain area.

just one thing if i get yabbies what size should they be and could i put them in the pond they might even breed if i move a pregnant one into it(unless the turtles eat it and the eggs)
the only thing im worried about is the yabbies hurting the turtles a small one clawed me once and it went right through my skin.