Luckily, the turts made it through and are back to normal but it was so stressful not knowing if they cold handle the sudden temperature changes.
Here is a picture of Ichigo enjoying her reheated tub.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Almost frozen
We had a five day power outage from an ice storm that swept through last week. It was really rough. We obviously should have had a generator but we plan on making that purchase next time we have extra cash. We tried to keep the turtles warm by boiling water and putting hot water bottles in their tanks every 45 minutes or so but after 2 whole days of that we were exhausted and running low on propane. A neighbor lent us a kerosene heater which heated the turtle room up real nice but it smelled so awful, we had to discontinue use after a day. One day went by after that with us having exhausted our resources and I hoped that the turtles would go into hibernation and make it through okay. The final day we found the last propane camping heater available at a store across the river and got that to heat the turtle room.
Luckily, the turts made it through and are back to normal but it was so stressful not knowing if they cold handle the sudden temperature changes.
Here is a picture of Ichigo enjoying her reheated tub.
Luckily, the turts made it through and are back to normal but it was so stressful not knowing if they cold handle the sudden temperature changes.
Here is a picture of Ichigo enjoying her reheated tub.
Sunday, November 2, 2008
What a forlorn look.........
This is Pan-kun on his basking dock, looking out his window at the rest of the world. Looking pretty forlorn wouldn't you say? Ichigo comes out of her tank almost everyday even in cold weather to at least walk around the room a bit. If I take Pan-kun out of his tank, he hides in his shell most of the time now so I haven't taken him out recently. I wonder if he looks out his window to watch Ichi in the next tank over or if he looks through the glass door to the kitchen to see what we are doing or if he just dreams of a different life. Even though his tank is mighty big I dream of making a more natural and "fun" living area for him one day. I figure if I take good care of both of these turtles, I'll have lots of time to upgrade in the years to come. (We're talking decades here)Ichigo and I had a break through today of sorts. While on her rounds outside her tank, she decided to find me sitting on the ground and climb into my lap. She turned herself around to look at me, tried to climb my up my stomach a bit, then back down and just hung out on my lap for a while. She did this twice today. Although I would like to think that she enjoys my company, I have a feeling she just found the warmest spot on the ground to heat up on before taking off on her wanderings again. At least she trusts me enough .........
Friday, October 10, 2008
The Ichi Trail
The path that Ichigo likes to take is what I call the "Ichi Trail". She will almost always take the same route every time I take her outside no matter where I place her on the ground in the front yard.
She has been doing so much better and eating well.... She will eat from my hand now! She is also finally shedding the big scutes on the top of her shell. The scutes underneath are so much prettier. I am happy for her.
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Pictures finally
Ichigo is doing a little bit better. Yesterday especially, she was opening both eyes and walking around a lot and ate some shrimp. Today her eyes were bothering her again. The tank has almost fully cycled and her ammonia and nitrite levels are about zero. Nitrate levels are lowering so we are almost there. I noticed today that her water pH level went down a wee bit too much after topping her tank off with spring water so I put in some tap water today to try to level it again to about 7. She is so sensitive..... compared to Pan-kun!
Thursday, September 18, 2008
It's the water
So we've basically figured out what happened to Ichigo's eyes.
The water where we now live that comes out of the tap is Alkaline and reads about 8.8 so we got a bunch of spring water and switched to that. The pH now reads around 7.5. Then we realized that we neglected to read more about filters and had no idea that the tank takes weeks to cycle and the newly added water had Nitrite spikes up the wazoo. We are trying to deal with that by adding Stress Zyme beneficial bacteria but also found a refrigerated product that claims to help the cycling even faster which we ordered and should be here via Fed Ex tomorrow.
We went to see a new vet who also thought it was the water last week and he gave us a different antibiotic eye drop but now that we are trying to build the beneficial bacteria in the tank, I am stopping the use of that which could kill some of the bacteria we need.
She is very active all day long but was having trouble with her appetite so I've started feeding her tuna in a separate small tank. Our old vet had suggested we get her to eat ANYTHING that she will put in her mouth just to get her digestive system going again so I've gone to her favorite stinky food.
She isn't getting any worse and I think is slowly, very slowly getting better, opening her eyes for longer periods of time each day.
I know she had a slightly red right eye even before we moved so there may have been something going on before we moved and the water changes made whatever she had blow up.
A few of you had mentioned it might be the UV light, but I am using the same one I have been using since we got her in May so it can't be that. I measured how far it is from her dock and it is not too close. I wish it were as simple as just being the light.
The water where we now live that comes out of the tap is Alkaline and reads about 8.8 so we got a bunch of spring water and switched to that. The pH now reads around 7.5. Then we realized that we neglected to read more about filters and had no idea that the tank takes weeks to cycle and the newly added water had Nitrite spikes up the wazoo. We are trying to deal with that by adding Stress Zyme beneficial bacteria but also found a refrigerated product that claims to help the cycling even faster which we ordered and should be here via Fed Ex tomorrow.
We went to see a new vet who also thought it was the water last week and he gave us a different antibiotic eye drop but now that we are trying to build the beneficial bacteria in the tank, I am stopping the use of that which could kill some of the bacteria we need.
She is very active all day long but was having trouble with her appetite so I've started feeding her tuna in a separate small tank. Our old vet had suggested we get her to eat ANYTHING that she will put in her mouth just to get her digestive system going again so I've gone to her favorite stinky food.
She isn't getting any worse and I think is slowly, very slowly getting better, opening her eyes for longer periods of time each day.
I know she had a slightly red right eye even before we moved so there may have been something going on before we moved and the water changes made whatever she had blow up.
A few of you had mentioned it might be the UV light, but I am using the same one I have been using since we got her in May so it can't be that. I measured how far it is from her dock and it is not too close. I wish it were as simple as just being the light.
Monday, September 8, 2008
Ichi is sick!!!!
Now Ichi's eyes are all puffy and closed shut! The vet that we had been seeing in NYC has given Dave who happened to be in the city today new eye drop medication but I am so worried! She looks so miserable and in pain. Please pray for her.
The last few days we have been trying to figure out what was causing it and haven't been able to pinpoint anything. I wish she could tell us what is wrong.
The last few days we have been trying to figure out what was causing it and haven't been able to pinpoint anything. I wish she could tell us what is wrong.
Friday, September 5, 2008
Our new house!
Sorry I haven't updated in weeks but we have been trying to move..... and finally made it upstate! This is our new house and we were able to go to the Agway and buy Ichigo a big stock tank and set her up. She seemed really happy but now she has swollen red eyes and it's horrible! I can't find her eye medication in all our moving boxes so I gave her drops of cod liver oil hoping that it will help. I will post pictures of both her, and Pan-kun next week. Please send good thoughts to Ichi........
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