Understanding your pet turtle’s behavior is helpful if you want to ensure that your animal is healthy overall. Understanding your pets’ habits will quickly help you pick up if there is something up with the animal
Your pet may be rubbing its eyes and this may be why you’re concerned about it, this article looks into why this happens.
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Why is my turtle rubbing his eyes?
Seeing your turtle start to rub its eyes may be worrying to you, eye rubbing in humans is usually a sign of irritation or discomfort in us, but is this the same for turtles?
This article looks into why your turtle may be rubbing its eyes:
Foreign objects:
One of the simplest and most common reasons why your pet turtle may be rubbing its eyes may simply be because there is a foreign object stuck in the animal’s eyes
Anything from debris, dirt, or pieces of food can get stuck in your pet’s eyes and this can lead to irritation. The turtle will try its best to remove the irritation by rubbing its eyes to alleviate the discomfort.
What to do:
Carefully inspect your pet’s eye to confirm if it does have something stuck in its eye.
If there is something stuck in your pet’s eye then you can let the animal be or intervene if the animal can’t seem to remove the object on its own
If you choose to let the animal be then the rubbing will eventually get the object out
Helping your pet reptile will look like gently flushing the turtle’s eyes using a saline solution just as you would flush your eyes if you had a foreign object stuck in them.
Water issues:
If your pet’s water isn’t optimal your turtle may start to develop irritation in its eyes which can cause the animal to rub its eye.
These animals spend a significant time in the water and if the water has an issue then this can cause discomfort and eye-rubbing
One issue may be that you’re putting your turtle back into its tank before you put the dechlorinator in. If this is the case then your pet will immediately rub its eyes as soon as you put the animal in
The chlorine in the water may be bugging your pet, and because you haven’t dechlorinated the water before putting your reptile in, it causes irritation.
What to do:
The remedy for this is simple, if you want to stop this behavior then be sure to dechlorinate your pet’s water before you put the turtle in
This simple change in how you do the water changes in your pet’s tank can stop this behavior in your pet.
It is also recommended that you monitor your pet’s water and maintain optimal water quality for the overall health of your pet.
If your pet’s eye irritation is accompanied by other worrying signs, like swelling, discharge, or a change in appetite then it is advised that you take your turtle to a vet, or better yet, a Herp vet.
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, Red-Eared Slider Scratching Head, Why Is My Turtle Rubbing His Head, 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