The red-eared slider is one of the most popular types of reptiles to raise, the red patch of skin on their heads makes them quite distinctive and captivating.
What is also interesting about them is their behavior at times, one behavior that your red-eared slider may be exhibiting is scratching its head.
This article looks into why your red-eared slider may be scratching its head.
Table of Contents
Red-eared slider scratching head:
Many odd behaviors that you may see in your red-eared slider are actually quite normal for these animals and aren’t something that you’d need to worry about.
But, some behaviors need to be worried about and need medical attention
This is why your red-eared slider may be scratching its head:
It is itchy:
Itchiness may make your red-eared slider scratch its head, itchiness can come from a variety of things including dry skin, parasites, or something as simple as the animal experiencing skin irritation as a result of something in its environment.
What to do:
Itchiness in your pet turtle is quite normal and common, it isn’t something that you’d need to worry yourself over
Allow your pet to scratch its itch, the itch should go away soon enough.
That being said, if your pet is itching, and starts to show signs of a parasitic infection then taking your pet to the vet, or better yet to a Herp vet, is recommended.
Removing dead skin:
Another reason why your turtle may be scratching its head may simply be because the animal is removing old dead skin.
Red-eared sliders are like all reptiles, and like all other animals, they replace their dead skin cells to make way for new fresh skin cells.
The pieces of old skin falling off of the animal’s body may sometimes be uncomfortable for your pet and this may make the skin itchy and make the turtle rub its skin.
The scratching of the head may simply be a way of getting the dead skin off of its body. This is similar to how the animal will shed its shell to make room for new scutes.
What to do:
This is quite normal behavior and isn’t something that you’d need to worry about, in fact, removing old dead skin cells is good, it’s a sign that your pet is normal and healthy.
Irritated eyes:
If your pet turtle is rubbing its head, and mainly rubbing its eyes, then this may mean that the animal’s eyes are irritated.
This irritation can happen in your turtles if you put the turtle back in its water before you put the dechlorinator in.
What to do:
You can immediately help your red-eared slider by using eye drops in the animal’s eyes. These eye drops will quickly soothe the eyes and get the animal to stop rubbing them
Because the water may be causing the irritation you would need to dechlorinate your pet’s water before you put the animal in, this should stop the eye-rubbing.
If you enjoyed this article then you may also be interested in other turtle/tortoise related articles. Here are some articles that you may be interested in: Turtle Kicking Legs While Basking, Why Is My Turtle Rubbing His Head, Why Is My Turtle Rubbing His Eyes, Why Does My Turtle Twitch While Basking, Why Is My Turtle Spazzing?, Why Is My Tortoise Twitching?, Why Is One Turtle Bigger Than The Other?, Why Is My Turtle Jumping, Tortoise Head Twitching