Accidental biting during feeding

[Paschendale52]

Good morning!

This morning when feeding the 4 maps in the living room aquarium one of them (A) clamped down on the front hand of another (B). It seemed accidental since they were both going for the same food pellet, but A refused to let go. I picked them both up out of the water being careful not to pull them apart since B's finger was still stuck in A's mouth. After a minute or so of trying to get A to let go I dropped them back in water from ~1/2" above the surface and the small shock seemed to make A let go. I watched B swim around for a bit and they don't seem to be favoring one hand over the other or having any trouble swimming so I don't think any damage was done.

Any thoughts on how to keep that from happening in the future? Should I try to separate them more for feeding?

Thanks!
Will

 

[Markw84]

Good morning!

This morning when feeding the 4 maps in the living room aquarium one of them (A) clamped down on the front hand of another (B). It seemed accidental since they were both going for the same food pellet, but A refused to let go. I picked them both up out of the water being careful not to pull them apart since B's finger was still stuck in A's mouth. After a minute or so of trying to get A to let go I dropped them back in water from ~1/2" above the surface and the small shock seemed to make A let go. I watched B swim around for a bit and they don't seem to be favoring one hand over the other or having any trouble swimming so I don't think any damage was done.

Any thoughts on how to keep that from happening in the future? Should I try to separate them more for feeding?

Thanks!
Will

I would not worry about it. It is not aggression as you noted, it is just they way turtles feed. It's fairly rare that another gets caught in the bite, but it does happen. I've seen it happen 3 times in the past 35 years and 100's of turtles. Once was a snapping turtle that caught the head of one of my spotted turtles. In that case the spotted lost its head. That was the last day I had a snapping turtle in my pond!

They do use the "feeding frenzy" to help each other tear up larger pieces of food. So it is a beneficial behavior in the wild as scavengers. That's why they will initially hang on. If it ever does happen again, lifting them out of the water as you did, but then repeat putting them just under water, and that will normally force a release as the "holder" will be more interested in escape at that point.

 

[Paschendale52]

Thanks for the info. It made me think of that .gif that has floated around the internet forever of the alligators that are feeding and one accidentally grabs the others hand, rips it off, and eats it. The now 1 armed gator just looks at the guy that just ate his hand like "seriously man. I'm so disappointed in you." Luckily no harm done!

https://thumbs.gfycat.com/SorrowfulGloriousCobra-mobile.mp4

I don't know if the link will go, but we'll find out!