We as turtle raisers want our little pets to enjoy their environment and interact with their environment, but, if you find that your turtle keeps changing its environment, if your turtle seems to love moving the rocks in his enclosure around then you may be confused
This article is a look into why your turtle may enjoy moving his rocks
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Why does my turtle move his rocks?
Rock moving may seem quite odd but it happens way more often than we think, and you’d understandably want to unpack why your turtle is doing this.
Here is why your turtle is moving its rocks:
Redecorating:
Believe it or not, turtles redecorate, sort of. If there are rocks in your pet’s enclosure, and the rocks are in a location that the animal does not approve of, then your pet turtle may try to move these rocks
You’ll know that the animal is happy with the new rock position because the turtle will swim around the rock and leave it alone
What to do:
If you see your pet doing this then you can let the animal be, this is normal and isn’t something that you’d need to worry about, let the turtle redecorate to its heart’s content
Boredom:
Another reason why our pet may be moving their rocks around may be because the animal is bored.
After a while, even a complex and well-decorated enclosure may seem boring, when this happens your pet may start to move things around in order to relieve itself of boredom.
What to do:
You can change the enclosure slightly to relieve your pet of boredom. Do this by adding new plants into the enclosure, moving things around, and making sure that the animal has hiding and basking spaces.
Don’t change the enclosure too much, too much of a change will cause the animal to feel anxious
You can also allow your pet to roam around your home to help relieve it of its boredom
Looking for food:
Another reason why your pet turtle may be moving its rocks may be because the turtle is trying to forage, these animals forage in the wild and will do the same in captivity
Your pet will unsettle rocks looking for crustaceans and aquatic insects hiding in the rocks
If your turtle seems to be picking up rocks, gnawing on them and then moving the rocks around then this may simply mean that the animal is looking for snails especially
To turtles rocks pretty much look like snails, and if your pet turtle thinks that it has the opportunity to eat a snail it will
What to do:
Rocks naturally occur in nature so you don’t have to worry that your pet will eat the rocks and die. The reptile will spit the rock out once it realizes that the rock isn’t food
This is normal behavior and is instinctual. It doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re underfeeding your pet. these animals are opportunistic feeders and will eat anything they see in front of them.
As long as you’re feeding your pet enough food for its size then you don’t need to add more food to the animal’s diet. These animals will eat even when they are full and they will become fat if this is consistently done.
If you’re worried you can remove the current rocks in the tank and provide the animal with bigger rocks, make sure that these rocks are substantially larger than the animal’s head, this will keep the animal from eating any smaller rocks.
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: Why Does My Turtle Hiss At Me, Why Does My Turtle Pee On Me?, Why Is My Turtle A Picky Eater?, Why Is My Turtle Swimming Frantically?, Why Is My Turtle Panicking?, Why Does My Turtle Have A Lump On His Neck?, Why Is My Turtle Digging In The Rocks?, Why Is My Turtle Digging In The Sand?, Why Is My Turtle Burrowing?