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星烁 (Xing Yue.Starry Moon) the Malayan Box Turtle
Age as of 2018: 4 Year Old
Gender: Boy




阳光 (Yang Guang.Sunlight) the Red-Eared Slider
Age as of 2018: 4 Year Old
Gender: Boy




月光 (Yue Guang.Moonlight) the Red-Eared Slider
Age as of 2018: 4 Year Old
Gender: Boy




流星 (Liu Xing.Meteor) the Malayan Box Turtle
Age as of 2018: 10 Years Old
Gender: Girl




銀河 (Yin He.Galaxy) the Malayan Box Turtle
Age as of 2018: 7 Years Old
Gender: Boy




晨光 (Chen Guang.Dayligh) the Red-Eared Slider
Age as of 2018: 3 Years Old
Gender: Boy




暮光 (Mu Guang.Twilight) the Red-Eared Slider
Age as of 2018: 3 Years Old
Gender: Boy




星宇 (Xing Yu.Starry Nite) the Malayan Box Turtle
Age as of 2018: 7 Years Old
Gender: Girl

This page contains a compilation of links or information shared by pet lovers rearing Malayan Box Turtles and Red-Eared Sliders/Terrapins. Good for reading and sharing if interested to find out more about these cute little animals.

 

Photos taken by FiOh Shine Shine

Reading List

Animals Diversity Webs - Cuora Amboinesnsis

Aqua Land Pets

Box Turtles.com

Ecology Asia

Exotic Pets

Pets Supplies Plus

Reptiles Maagazine

Turtle Puddle

Wikipedia - Amboina Box Turtle

It was few days ago that FiOh accidentally dropped Cosmos (while they are in their tank; placed on the basin) from a height of about 75~80cm tall. Worried and concerned about the impact of the fall on our Cosmos, we bought them to visit the vet.






After explaining what happened to Doctor Chua, he brief his assistant on the x-ray procedures for our Cosmos. It's said that to take the x-ray, we will need to flip a turtle over on their back, however, Yang Guang and Yue Guang are very sensitive and would flip back immediately when being flipped over.

Hence, Doctor Chua recommended to try to 'scare' the Cosmos and even demonstrated by touching their face or nose (so they would keep still for the x-ray), yet it doesnt work too. So Doctor Chua suggested to cover the Cosmos with the animal cloth while they are flipped over.

After some time of waiting, it's finally our Cosmos' turn to take the X-Ray!
It was another assistant assigned to take the x-ray and she had a difficult time trying to keep them still with the 'scarring them' method.






The reason why the 'scaring them' method doesn't work on our Cosmos is because... that's how we usually plays with them. LOL. Upon hearing this from us, the vet assistant couldn't hold back and really laugh out loud. This time FiOh went in to the x-ray room and speaks to the Cosmos, telling them to just stay still for a moment for the X-Ray. Indeed, it kind of worked, excepted that Yang Guang moved a little though.

At the end of the entire session, after reviewing of the X-Ray, Doctor Chua confirms that our Cosmos are all fine and unhurt. That's truly a great relief for us!! For those of you who are/might be interested, below are the x-rays:




After this incident, we have learnt to be even more careful when handling and taking care of our Cosmos.
P.S: Video of the X-Ray session will be posted up to the Cosmos Clique's YouTube separately at a later date. =)

Labels: Cosmos, Turtle, Vet Visit

Previously we mentioned that we noticed Xing Yue looking unwell and not being himself, recalled it around 28th March when we first observed his 'beary' symptoms.

Most of you reptile lovers will know that it is not easy to locate a good and reputable vet clinic that look after and treats reptiles (compared to the fact that most vets only specialize in the care of cats and dogs).

After much research and research, we finally located this vet clinic that actually treats Aquatic animals (a really good news for us!!) - The Allpets & Aqualife clinic.

29th March 2014

Around 3pm plus FiOh bought Xing Yue down to the clinic, but as we did not book for any appointment in advance, we waited for really quite some time. At the clinic itself, we met 3 other RES owners; a pair of Caucasian mother and daughter (with two eyes infected RES), a lady who has a total of 6 RES for 16 years (she bought two of her sick male RES to the clinic), and a man who bought his 15 years old RES for a followup on its shell treatment (heard that his RES climb out from somewhere and had a great fall, parts of his shell was broken but luckily he still survives).

I think its about 5pm plus, its finally Xing Yue's turn to see the vet. We met a lady vet (looks really young) who is appointed to check on Xing Yue. The vet assistant took Xing Yue's weight and the vet herself check on Xing Yue's shell by knocking onto it, as well as kind of squeezing him.

Poor Xing Yue, he is totally freaked out by the vet lady, till such extend that he hide himself into his shell until only his nostril could be seen. My heart ached when seeing Xing Yue acting like this, but I'm not the expert so all I can do was to observe and remind the vet lady to be more gentle.

After much struggle and coaxing, Xing Yue would not come out of his shell to show the vet lady his neck. No choice but to end the check up session. In the end Xing Yue was prescribed with 4 strings of Vitamins solution to be added to his food (and I bought a small pack of Mazuri brand pellet as recommended for a better diet), and we reached home at about slightly after 7pm. Tough day for Xing Yue!


31st March 2014

This day, we bought Xing Yue down to the clinic again, but booked an appointment with the most recommended vet Dr Frederic Chua mentioned on the forums for reptiles treatment. We observe how tactful and gentle Dr Chua handle Xing Yue, at a point of time, when Dr Chua quickly held XY up and at the same time, pushing all his fore and back limbs into his shell, Xing Yue look totally puzzled why did his head pop up of his shell automatically. (Seriously, XY's expression was epic!)

When Dr Chua sees that XY is struggling so hard to hide his head into his shell that blood rushes up, making his entire neck totally red, he placed XY onto his desk to see if XY will start to crawl around. After a few minutes while we chat with Dr Chua (giving him some background info of XY basically), XY still chooses to hide into his shell. 

In the end, we suggested letting XY bask in the sun for a short period of time, to see if he would choose to stretch out his neck. Dr Chua was so patient with XY, and that together with his assistant, we all waited under the sun with XY, just for the right moment. Finally, Xing Yue peeks out of his shell and stretches his neck a little, Dr Chua then tries to pick up some skin sample from Xing Yue's neck, too bad the attempt was not successful. Nevertheless, Dr Chua waited and took the chance to look and observe at Xing Yue's 'beary neck'. It was concluded that Xing Yue was down with skin infection... okay how did it happen? The cause of skin infection is due to the lack of proper basking and drying of the skin.

Dr Chua mentioned that Xing Yue's breed are timid and shy by nature, so we can only help by giving him a choice between the dry and wet land. Dr Chua also said that Xing Yue is native to Singapore! This day, all the other vets and assistant were all curious to see a Malayan Box Turtle in their clinic, with lots of 'cute!' comments. Hahah. At the end of the day, Xing Yue was prescribed with a bottle of medical solution to treat his infected skin.

So, for the mean time, we have to separate Xing Yue in a different tank for his skin treatment solution.  
Last but not least, here's a picture of the tired Xing Yue at the end of his 2nd vet visit.

Labels: Cosmos, Turtle, Vet Visit

It was approximately 2 weeks ago that we noticed Xing Yue (XY) having dents on the sides of his head which got us worried (scroll down for more photos showing the dents, click on the photos to view).

Around last weekend we noticed XY getting "beardy" looking blurry sides... he was brought to his first vet visit but got his head tucked in persistently that only vitamins were issued along with the recommended Mazuri pellets.

Labels: Cosmos, Turtle, Vet Visit