The health and well-being of your turtle is likely of the utmost importance to you if you’re raising these reptiles, a change in eating habits may make you concerned about your pet’s health and wellbeing
You may start to worry if your turtle hasn’t eaten in a week, this article looks into why this happens.
Turtle hasn’t eaten in a week:
While a lack of appetite is not uncommon for turtles the animal not eating for a long period of time will understandably be worrying to you as the turtle owner
Here is why your turtle may have not eaten in a week:
New environment:
If your turtle is new to your home, if you just got it, and if it isn’t eating, and if it hasn’t eaten for a while, then the turtle may simply be uncomfortable in its new environment and will not eat because of this.
These animals are scared of almost everything, including a new environment, new environments cause these animals to feel stressed. They will only eat when they feel comfortable enough to eat and are free from stress.
They may also not eat if you bring new additions to the tank.
What to do:
You can leave food out for your pet and make sure that it sees you leaving food out for it, this will get it to associate you, and its environment, with safety
Leaving treats will be even more effective and this will get the animal to get used to its environment quicker, just don’t overfeed your pet treats.
The animals will likely only feel stressed and uncomfortable for about a week and will proceed to eat everything in sight after the week is over.
Temperature changes:
One reason why your pet turtle may stop eating may be because the temperature of its environment has dropped significantly.
The metabolism of turtles slows down if the temperature of their environment cools down, this makes the animal use less energy and thus causes the animal’s appetite to reduce or causes a lack of appetite.
These animals stop eating when it is cooler because they need heat to help digest food, if it’s too cold then they can’t digest food properly
This may be what you are seeing if your pet isn’t eating and hasn’t eaten in a week.
What to do:
Check the temperature in your pet’s enclosure looking to see if it’s suddenly colder in the enclosure
You’d want to mimic summertime temperatures in your pet’s enclosure which is keeping the water at 75 to 80 degrees and keeping their basking temperature at 90 degrees.
Turning the temperature up will get the animal to want to eat again.
Illness:
Illness is another reason why your turtle may have lost its appetite and hasn’t eaten for a week. A lack of appetite is a common symptom of many turtle illnesses.
Other signs that indicate that your pet is sick are difficulty breathing, swollen eyes, eye, mouth, or nose discharge, lethargy, sneezing and coughing
What to do:
Taking your pet to the vet is recommended but depending on what other symptoms your sick pet shows you can also treat the animal and home.
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: My Turtle Keeps Splashing, What Happens If You Drop A Baby Turtle, My Turtle Escaped His Tank, My Turtle Hasn’t Eaten In Months, Why Is My Turtle Floating Upside Down, How To Find Lost Turtle In Yard, Turtle Hiccups, Can I Put My Turtle In The Sun?, Why Is My Turtle Bleeding From Tail?