Turtle Not Eating or Swimming – Find Out What to Do

Usually, turtles are very hardy pets, and even if you are not the most experienced turtle owner, your turtle won’t have to suffer from this. But sometimes turtles can start behaving strangely, like not eating or even not swimming. If this happens it means that something is not right. And in this article, I am going to help you find the problem and solve it as well.

Why is my turtle not eating or swimming? There can be a lot of reasons why your turtle is not eating or swimming, here is a list with the most common:

Pregnancy
Bad Temperature
Stress
Scared
Bad Diet
Medical Problems

So there are quite a few possible reasons for the strange behavior but don’t get intimidated by this. Most of them are not severe and can be solved very easily. So let’s start exploring each one of them.

Pregnancy

Pregnancy is usually one of the main causes that make turtles act strange.

A pregnant turtle will act very strangely, she will stop eating, she will stop basking, she will try to kick things with her legs, she will hide, etc.

This can be quite common behavior for pregnant turtles. Like most pregnant animals, turtles feel very vulnerable during this time, and hormones can make her make decisions that she wouldn’t have under normal circumstances. Even if your pet turtle has never seen a predator, it’s just in their instinct to do this.

If your turtle is pregnant there is nothing that you can do to make her stop acting strange. You just have to wait and take care of her like you usually do, even if she is not very cooperative.

The first thing you have to do if you want to know if your turtle is really pregnant is to find out if it’s a male or a female. To find out you should read this article that is going to tell you if that’s the case: How to Tell If Your Turtle Is Male or Female.

And if your turtle is a female, and you want to know if she is pregnant, then you should read this article where you will find all the info you need: How to Tell if Your Turtle Is Pregnant.

One important thing about turtles is that they can get pregnant even if there is no male around. The difference is that the eggs won’t be fertilized so no baby will come out of them. So even if you only have a female turtle she can still lay eggs.

Bad Temperature

Bad Water Temperature

Turtles are cold-blooded animals, this means that they don’t produce any body heat, so they rely on the surrounding temperature to warm their bodies.

If the temperature of the water is not warm enough, your turtle will start to exhibit strange behavior. Solving this problem is really easy, just adjust the water temperature.

The exact water temperature varies from species to species. But in general, it’s between 75 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit ( 24 and 27 degrees Celsius ). If you keep the water temperature between 75 and 80 degrees, then your turtle will stop all of its strange behaviors and go back to normal.

If you don’t own a tank heater, or you want to get a new one I suggest you check out the Recommended Gear Page, where you will find some of the best turtle care products, which were tested by me and the rest of the turtleowner.com team.

Bad Basking Area Temperature

The basking area is where turtles get most of the heat for their bodies, as well as the UVB rays that are essential for them.

If the temperature of the basking area is too low or too high, your turtle will also start to exhibit strange behavior. But don’t worry, this problem is easy to fix. You just have to make a few changes to the basking area, so that it produces just the right amount of heat.

Depending on the turtle species that you have, the basking area temperature will also differ. But if the temperature is between 85 and 90 degrees Fahrenheit ( 29 and 32 degrees Celsius ), your turtle will be just fine.

If you want to know more about heating and lighting for turtles, check out this article where you will find a complete guide: Guide for Lighting and Heating a Turtle Tank and Basking Area.

Stress

Surprisingly turtles are very easily affected by stress. A stressed-out turtle can exhibit all kinds of strange behaviors.

Here are a few things that can stress a turtle:

Loud speakers that are placed right next to the tank
A cat or a dog that is always trying to get into the tank
Improper handling
Too frequent interactions
Etc.

If something is able to stress out most people, then it can also easily stress out a turtle.

To solve this problem you simply have to remove the stress source. Usually, this can be solved by moving the tank to another room that is less frequented by other people. But how to solve this problem really depends on the thing that is stressing your turtle. So basically you just have to remove that stress factor, and soon your turtle will soon start to act normal again.

Scared

If your turtle just arrived in its new home then it’s completely normal for it to act strangely. When turtles arrive in a new area they will be very scared. Most turtles are kept in a small tank or container with other turtles until they are sold. Taking them from a small and crowded place and moving them into a spacious tank where there is no other turtle can be quite scary.

In this situation, there is nothing that you can do except to take care of your turtle as you would normally do. Your turtle will need a few days, sometimes even a couple of weeks to get used to the new place. After that, they should stop hiding, and start exploring new environments.

Bad Diet

Another reason why your turtle is acting strangely could be due to a bad diet. If turtles don’t have a proper diet they will stop eating or they will display strange behavior.

This doesn’t necessarily happen because you don’t give your turtle food, but it can happen because you don’t give your turtle the right food.

A proper diet will contain a mix of live prey, meat, pellets, fruits, and vegetables. If you are only giving your turtle pellets, then that’s a problem. But fortunately, it’s easy to solve.

To solve this problem you just have to start giving your turtle other types of food, besides pellets.

At this point I would recommend you to read this article: What do Turtles Eat? it contains a lot of information about what turtles eat, what they should eat, and a lot more. On this site, we also have articles on how much and how often a turtle should eat, or what kind of fruits and vegetables, based on the species of the turtle. To find those articles just check out the Care Guides section of the site.

Medical Problems

And the final item on the list is medical problems.

It is possible that your turtle might have a medical problem. If this is the case the only advice that I can give, and the only one you should follow, is to go to the vet. If your turtle has a medical problem you must definitely go to the vet.

So check every item in this article, if you are sure that one of them is the problem, then that’s great. But if you are not sure that you found your problem on this list, then you should go to the vet.

Conclusion

So most of the problems can be solved quite easily I would say. But in case you are having a hard problem getting the temperature right, or adjusting the diet, or anything else, you can leave a comment in the section below, and I will answer it as soon as possible.