Baby red eared sliders blind and not opening eyes

[magy]

Hello, my baby red eared slider has yellowish opaque eyes with no pupil, and doesn't respond to light. He is blind as certain, but have not been opening his eyes for nearly 2 months now. He doesn't eat at all, I have been keeping him for 3 months and he has not eaten anything. It might be because of the blindness. But he is pretty lively and swims around, feeling with his nose when he is stimulated (i.e. put into a new tank). I've been trying to give him more sunlight.

Can anyone tell me what is his eye problem exactly, and how to get him to eat with that blindness? thanks so much!

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[Yvonne G]

When turtles and box turtles stop eating, their eyes swell shut. It's mainly a vitamin A deficiency.

You need to figure out why he stopped eating in the first place. My GUESS is that he wasn't warm enough. Do you have a dock he can climb out onto and get totally out of the water? And over the dock to you have a light shining to warm it up, like the sun? Do you have a heater to keep the water about 70-75F degrees?

If you've answered "no" to these questions, then you MUST fix these problems immediately. And while you're fixing them, soak your baby in warm baby food water. The Gerber strained carrots or squash have the highest Vitamin A content. Using a small bowl with tall sides, add about a half jar of strained carrots to the bowl and then add some warm water. Mix it all up and put in your turtle. Just leave him in the water for about a half hour or more. You can position the bowl under a light - right at the edge of where the light hits the table, not directly under the light - to keep him warm. Do this every day and you should start to see some improvement in the swelling. They may even be open at the end of three days.

Once you have the eyes open, then you have to offer things that attract a feeding response (and turtles can't eat out of water. They have to be submerged in order to swallow). Small worms, pin head crickets, etc.