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it is a mating thing when turtles bite other turtles2007-11-24 2:01:29

i have a male painted turtle and a female map turtle (still quite young). i just caught the painted biting the map on the neck hard. it took me a few seconds to get them separated. is it mating or fighting? the male does the mating "dance" to the female very often.

Answers:

Courtship for Painteds usually involves stroknig the face and cheeks with their long claws, but can include biting. It is also possible this is an aggression display (especially since a Map won't respond correctly to the courtship display!)

Double check your cares, but the key to this is often in tank size. We want at least 10 gallons of swimming water per inch of turtle- and even more if we try to mix species. Several basking areas, scattered feeding spots, etc.- make sure everyone has their own 'space'.

Also double check your feeding program- too much or too little food or the wrong foods can add to the problem.

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yes also some lizards will do the same

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Geee, I have two river turtle native Australian and I thought of the best thing was to put them together.Wrong the younger attacked the older and within 30 seconds had half of his front foot eaten. Moral of the story is check the sex first(very difficult for turtles) you may find you have two males together they are terrotorial. Good luck.

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ya they r big into love bites

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I'm not so Sure If Map Turtles and painted turtles can mate, if the males on top of the female biting it's shell that's normal, but biting it's neck, well it could be fighting with the female or just trying to get the females attention. I would ask you vet though.

If The male bites the female to the point she bleeds then separate them right away.

P.S I had 35 box turtles and the males were always trying to get attention from the female

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Yes, animals do it.

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if its a neck bite defo my lizard has a mass scar from it