I have two red ear sliders and one of them is biting the other one!?

How can I stop this? I believe they are brother and sister... are they trying to mate?

I have two red ear sliders and one of them is biting the other one!?
I doubt they are mating. I have 9 of those. They may be in too small of a tank. The females are mean and much larger then males so she may want dominance. If the bites are bad there is a dip you can buy for them at the pet store.
Reply:i think you may be right............good luck
Reply:How big are they? Is one much larger than the other? They are probably not trying to mate but are fighting and you need to be careful of this because they may end up hurting one and another.


Unless they are above 4" you cannot tell if they are male or female so if they are less than this it's hard to say. If they are definitely male and female what other things are they doing to show they are trying to mate? The male will take his front claws and wave them in front of the females face to show he is interested. I suggest you check out this site: http://www.austinsturtlepage.com/ and I would also suggest you join a forum where you can post pics of your turtles tails so someone can tell you if what sex they are.


If they are both male, chances are you are going to have to seperate them....also if their tank is too small they will sometimes fight, your turtles should have 10 gallons of water per 1 inch in size so if you have two that are say 4 inches you shouldn't have anything smaller than an 80 gal. tank. Keep in mind too that bigger is always better and cheaper in the long run because those RES are going to get to be 12-18 inches in length by adulthood.


Good luck!
Reply:they are either trying to mate or they are fighting. Have you had them sexed by some that knows turtles or a vet? Is there tank large enough for them? Have you considered separating them to stop this so that one is not hurt?
Reply:When is it biting the other one? Is it while they are eating or at other times? It could be that they are mistaking each others body parts for something edible......





They may be trying to breed, if so you will probably eventually see them do what I like to call the "mating" dance...basically they wave their claws very quickly in the others face. If you ever see this you will know, its very distinct and different from other RES behavior.


However, you may not want them to breed since it will require special conditions for the female to lay her eggs (dry area, soil, heating, eggs can't be moved from the direction they were laid, ect.) and for them to hatch. If the conditions aren't met, the female could become egg bound, meaning she won't release her eggs and she could suffer complications requiring vet care.





Males will sometimes harass a female who doesn't want to mate and upset her causing her distress as well...





At any rate I would say that the only way to get them to stop for certain would be to separate them (personally, I would separate them before one of them is injured and so that one doesn't feel "bullied" constantly). You can't really train them, at least not as far as I am aware....





As already stated check out http://www.austinsturtlepage.com/ there is a fair amount of good info there about RES care, and there is also a forum containing alot of dedicated and long term hobbyists who can be quite helpful.



improve skin tone