# Eastern Long-Neck Turtle, spits all his food back out



## nikosss13 (Sep 28, 2011)

Hi guys, first post and a couple of questions so yeah...

My turtle who used to swallow fish whole, now won't eat anything (unless he's stealthing it, but I don't know). He'll swim up all excited to get his fish (white bait), grab it in his mouth and then he'll just sort of gnaw at it and claw at it before it falls out of his mouth and he just gives up on it. It's been going on for at least a month and a half, and I'm starting to get a bit worried.

I'm not 100% on whether he goes to get it later on as I assume the fish just sort of disintegrate once they've been in water for long, but he's still pretty energetic and happy. 

His skin and shell both look pretty good and he's not nervous or shy, he gets up on his rock and sunbakes for a while, swims around and just does his normal thing. Just a bit weird because he used to eat gigantic fish but now it just looks like he either thinks the food's too big for him to swallow or he's not hungry or he doesn't want to eat certain parts of the fish? I really don't know, all I know is that he's quite happy and excited when he sees food until he gets it in his mouth and just spits it out. 

I've tried to look it up but as with anything, everyone has a different opinion on what's good/bad, healthy/deadly so it's impossible to get a straight answer out of anything or anyone.

Any hints or info? Also, good turtle vets in Melbourne? I'm thinking of taking him in for a check-up.

Thanks heaps in advance.


----------



## olivehydra (Sep 28, 2011)

Eln turtles are prone to canker which can put them off their food. Also thrush like blooms in their upper intestinal tract will also do the same. Best advice would be to visit Australian Freshwater Turtles rather than here.


----------



## PythonLegs (Sep 28, 2011)

Wow..you really need to go here Australian Freshwater Turtles as olivehydra said. First response is that he's probably eating the fish while the lights are off, as they don't 'disintegrate' for quite a while, and if he wasn't eating them you'd have nitrate and ammonia build up from the rotting fish, and a very sick or dead turtle. Probably a good idea to remove th fish he does'nt eat after a few minutes.


----------



## nikosss13 (Sep 28, 2011)

They've disabled registration on that board, I can't join...


----------

