Every one of us has been slapped or has slapped someone before in our lives. It may have been out of anger, affection, or a type of bullying. Surprisingly, this behavior also exists amongst turtles.
Turtles are commonly seen slapping each other, but why do they do that?
Turtles would usually resort to slapping another turtle either as a means for it to gain the opposite sex turtle’s attention during mating rituals or as a way to exert its dominance over another turtle. Believe it or not, slapping amongst turtles is almost always done on purpose, your turtle is aware of its actions when it slaps another turtle.
It has taken us humans a long time to understand turtles and their behavior. Indeed it was only a couple of decades ago that we knew turtles do communicate with each other using sounds.
Likewise, it has taken us some time to realize that turtles slapping each other aren’t always an indication of a fight, instead, there are other reasons for it.
The Reasons Turtles Slap Each Other
What looks like your turtles slapping each other is actually their normal behavior. Turtles are commonly caught slapping each other for one of two reasons; for mating ritual, or the larger turtle exerting its dominance over the smaller turtle.
Mating Ritual
When it comes to mating, turtles have an interesting ritual that they follow by heart. The male turtle would have to woo the female turtle and impress it with its mating rituals.
Part of the mating ritual includes the need for the male turtle to gently slap the female turtle. This slap is not done to hurt or instill fear in the female turtle, instead, the male turtle would slap the female to gain its attention so that the male turtle could continue attempting to impress it.
It is important for the male turtle to have the female turtle’s attention during the mating ritual. If the female is disinterested, it would move away.
When this happens, the male turtle would need to work harder to impress the female turtle or simply just give up on it. With that said, at times the male turtle could even be seen gently nipping on the female turtle’s neck, legs or tail in an attempt to gain its attention.
Although in most instances when the male turtle slaps the female turtle it is done gently, sometimes due to its long claws, this slapping action can escalate into a problem. This is especially true when the female is disinterested and the male turtle keeps harassing to impress it.
Dominance In The Enclosure
Many experts have advised against placing turtles in the same enclosure once they achieved sexual maturity as turtles grow up to be solitary animals. The biggest problem with doing so is creating an unhealthy behavior of dominance.
This dominating behavior is usually adopted by the bigger turtle in the enclosure. When one turtle is dominating the other in an enclosure, it leads to a very stressful scenario for the dominated turtle.
The dominating turtle would conquer the basking spots and eat more than its share of food before leaving the leftovers for the other turtle. This situation would directly cause the weaker turtle to become sickly and could even lead to the weaker turtle losing its life.
Similar to a high school bully, the dominant turtle would occasionally slap the other turtle to remind it of the dominance it has over the other turtle. Sadly, this slapping behavior is part of the turtle’s way of life and it happens in the wild just as much as it does in your turtle’s enclosure.
Playful Slaps
With juvenile turtles, it is also possible to catch them slapping each other. However, these slaps would not have anything to do with dominance or mating.
Instead, it would just be a friendly, harmless slap more like an indication of playing around. It is possible to place juvenile turtles together and it would not cause an issue until one turtle outgrows the other.
Moreover, juvenile turtles are not sexually matured, hence the need to mate would not yet have arisen. So the slaps you see with juvenile turtles are almost always due to their playfulness.
How to Stop Your Turtles Slapping Each Other?
When it comes to your turtle’s mating ritual there is nothing that can be done to stop the slapping. This is just what turtles do and there is no need for us to interfere.
The solace we can take from watching the male turtle slapping the female turtle is that the slaps are usually gentle and rarely would the turtles get hurt. However, it is somewhat different when it comes to turtles slapping each other due to dominance.
When turtles slap each other to shows their dominance, it is done with the intention of hurting the other turtle, hence it will be harmful. Therefore, it’s important to know how to avoid this situation by understanding the reasons behind it.
The reason there is a need for one turtle to be more dominating over the other is usually due to a lack of space or aggression issues. Lack of space generally causes the turtles to become territorial, whereas some turtles become aggressive due to lack of food or a stressful environment.
Have Sufficient Room
A mistake that many new turtle pet owners often make is not upgrading the size of their turtle tank as the turtle grows. It is crucial that your turtle is given sufficient space to roam around the enclosure and also enough water in the tank for it to swim about.
As turtles grow bigger, these facilities would need to be enlarged as well, especially if you are housing more than one turtle in the enclosure. There are several conditions that are advisable to follow in ensuring your turtle has a healthy living environment.
First and foremost, it’s recommended to have at least a minimum of 20 gallons of water in the tank for each small turtle you have. Secondly, ensure the length of the water surface is at least five times your turtle’s length and the width is a minimum of three times your turtle’s length.
Lastly, the depth of the water in the tank should be approximately double the length of your turtle. By following these settings, you would be able to provide your turtles with plenty of room and avoid the need for one turtle to be dominating another turtle over space or territory.
Provide Individual Turtle Basking Spots
When housing more than one turtle in the same enclosure, it is important to provide each turtle its own basking spot. This would avoid the need for them to clash over the spot and reduce the amount of tension and aggression within their environment.
It’s also best to place each turtle’s basking spot as far away from the other as possible. Male turtles would flutter their claws in front of their rivals as an expression of their higher social status.
This often indicates a battle is on the verge of happening. By placing their basking spots on opposite corners of the enclosure, you would ensure that the turtles are kept apart most of the time and be able to prevent a fight from taking place between them.
In addition to that, you can also fill your tank with other objects like plants and rocks as attractions for your turtle, keeping them less bored. You could also further utilize these objects to create a physical barrier between your turtles by strategically placing them.
If the turtles can’t see each other, it will be less likely for them to get into a fight.
Keep The Tank Water Clean
Imagine you are placed in a dirty and contaminated surrounding, how would you feel? I bet you would be grumpy, unhappy, and aggressive.
Likewise, your turtle would also get cranky and aggressive due to its unhappiness over the conditions of its tank water. Therefore, it is important to maintain the cleanliness of the water in your turtle’s tank.
One of the most efficient ways to achieve that is by installing a water filter for the tank. Make sure that the filter you install in your turtle’s tank is capable of handling three times the volume of the water that’s in your turtle’s tank.
The reason for this is because, like fish, turtles also excrete their wastes in the water, causing the water to be easily contaminated. However, turtles excrete more waste in comparison to fish, so the need for a bigger filter.
Furthermore, it’s advised not to place live plants in your turtle’s tank water as the plants can be destroyed by your turtle and this would also dirty the water quickly.
Serve Food Separately for Each Turtle
The term hangry is used when someone is being both angry and hungry. It is common that a hungry person would easily get angry, and this is applicable for turtles as well.
When a turtle is hungry, it would become more aggressive and the possibility of a fight occurring with another turtle would increase. To avoid this situation from arising, it’s best to feed your turtles sufficiently every day.
Moreover, if you house more than one turtle in the enclosure, place the food on separate dishes at different locations at the same time to avoid one turtle dominating the food.
By doing this you would ensure that your turtles don’t have to fight each other for the food. In addition to that, you would also be making sure that your turtles are getting the amount of food they each require on a daily basis.
If you have implemented the above-mentioned ways to avoid your turtles slapping each other due to dominance or aggression, yet it has not been successful, then it’s time to place the turtles in separate enclosures.
This is to prevent the turtles from further harming each other. Turtles are territorial animals and more often than not there’s nothing that you can do to change that except providing it with its own enclosure.
Conclusion
In a nutshell, it is common to witness turtles slapping each other. This is actually a turtle’s normal behavior.
They slap each other for different reasons but most of the time it’s due to impressing its mate during the mating ritual or aggression shown when exerting its dominance over another turtle. Sometimes sexually immature juvenile turtles would slap each other playfully.
Although nothing can be done about turtles slapping each other during mating rituals, slaps due to aggression between turtles can be reduced by providing sufficient space, individual basking areas, clean water, and separate food trays for turtle living together in the same enclosure.
Mating ritual slaps are harmless as it’s only done with the purpose of getting the attention of the female turtle. However, slaps due to aggression or dominance could be brutal and cause serious injuries to the smaller turtle.
If all else fails, it is important to separate and isolate the turtles to prevent the fights and slaps from causing an irreversible injury to either turtle.
