Small shedding on head of Map (hidden when head is retracted)

[dantonyandtj]

Hi my map has a tiny bit of shedding skin stuck to his chin and the top of his head. He currently refuses pellets and lets them sit there for days so I have gotten him medium grub worms which I feed once a day 3 worms. He is about 2 months old and he basks and swims happily. I recently introduced a yellow belly into his tank but they get on perfectly.

I've ordered some calcium powder to add to the grub worms to bring up his calcium and some calcium chew bone things. His water temp is 23.1 on one side and about 23.5 on the other but this varies as they push the drift wood aboutand move the shaddow from end to end.

Basking temp is about 32 but I cannot accuratly mesure this as they push the driftwood about and it'd pull the thermostat around alot. Light is about 7/8 inches away

shedding is almost a circle about 1mm long by 2mm wide on the bottom and about half that on the top.

any suggestions on how to help my mappy or is minor shedding ok?

I cannot include any picture as seeing me makes him retract his head and hide it.

thanks =]

[Graham]

The basing area should be fixed under the lights, not floating around the tank, and adding calcium powder to the food is pointless as it'll wash off as soon as you put the food in the water, get them onto good quality pellets which contain sufficient calcium.

If you keep feeding worms it's hardly surprising they won't eat pellets which are relatively unappetising, you need to stop feeding completely for a couple of days then offer the pellets, and keep doing this until they eat them, don't leave them in there for days though, if they haven't been eaten by the time they go soft take them out.

Hard to say about the shedding without seeing it, but it doesn't sound serious, keep a close eye on it though and try to get some photos.

[dantonyandtj]

Thanks. So I could offer worms as a grub worms as a treat once they are both back on pellets? I've managed to keep TJ on pellets but he'll go for a little nibble of anything tony's eating.... not that he gets a look in =P

I'll offer only pellets for a few days then. Any procedure for adding grub worms back in as a treat as I have a 50gram pot of them and some worms in my drawer. I was tihnking tony might just not like the brand of pellets, is that likely?

How would I go about fixing the cork as a basking area? No matter where it is in the tank at least a third of it is in the direct basking light atm

[Graham]

Just cut the bark to the width of the tank and wedge it in.

Some turts just won't take any brand of pellets, compared to fresh, and especially live food, they are relatively unappetising, some turts which have never been fed pellets don't even seem to recognise them as food.

Once they have eaten pellets and accepted that it's something edible you shouldn't have any more trouble, you can try soaking them for a few minutes in meat or fish juice to make them more appealing, you shouldn't have to do this all the time though once they've accepted them.

[dantonyandtj]

Got the bark wedged against both sides of the tank. Its confusing TJ massively and he's trying to climb up the side of the wet tank and falling down. He'll learn though the other way is easier to get out and he has basked so im sure he'll be ok with it after some time to find the best way on.

Yes tony doesnt recogonise them as food even after watching TJ eat them. He swims up to them when i drop them in the pops his head out infrount of them has a little look and then swims off annoyed it isnt a grubworm. I'll try adding a few pellets into the tub of grub worms of would you recemend their blood to get the taste?

The size of the skin thats peeling has reduced firstly when i reduced how many gurb worms he was fed I am now trying the only offering pellets. Hopefully that will fully get rid of it.

[dantonyandtj]

TJ woke me up at 6am by scaling the wall and running across the table. Caught him just before the edge!! I have books wedged against the entire outside of the enclosure now. Luckily I get the bigger tank tonight at 7 so i can set up something more perminant and build mesh or something to stop my little houdini.