we just got three little red eared slider from someone and i have no clue how to take care of them, some places on the computer showed them with alot of water and others showed a little bit, and they do not seem to be eating the fod i give them. but when a dead fly fell in they started eating it......please help.
2007-01-03 05:39:15 · 7 answers · asked by Dana C 2 in Pets ➔ Reptiles
Red-ear sliders are easy to care for, once you get them a good habitat. Turtles like this love space, warmth, and sunlight an need cleanliness and a varied diet.
Space: Aim for 10 gallons of swimming space per linear inch of turtle shell and include some good basking sites in the tank. With 3 turtles about 1.5" long each, this means you should aim for a pool of about 45 gallons. I know this soulds like a lot, but these guys need the chance to swim around, exercise, choose to interact or hide, hunt, etc. Believe it or not, a bigger tank is actually easier ot manage than a small one. You can save money by using a big Rubbermaid-type tub for the tank.
Warmth- aim for 75-80F, managed by a thermostatically controled tank heater or two. Warm the basking sites to about 90F with lamps or heat lamps.
Sunlight- turtles NEED NEED NEED UV-B rays to be healthy. These rays do not penetrate most glass or plastic so we need to provide them with good lighting. Some reptile bulbs provide this.
Cleanliness- try a filter system abouit 2-3 times bigger than the same size fish tank would use.
Varied diet- try a mix of about 25-50% good pellets, and the rest things like live or frozen/thawed fish, shrimp, bugs, worms (especially bloodworms), beef heart, etc.
Good websites are http://www.austinsturtlepage.com and htp://www.redearslider.com
2007-01-03 07:21:11 · answer #1 · answered by Madkins007 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
You may need to get them insects- you can buy frozen krill or brine shrimp at a pet store. I know when we had baby turtles, that is all they would eat for a while. After a bit, wean them off of those and on to the turtle pellets. The krill/shrimp isn't that nutritious, but they will usually eat it.
A good set up would be half the aquarium with water and a floating land part that they can climb out of it on.
Or you can do less water and a bunch of rocks and sand- like a beach. Either way will work, it depends how much your babies like the water. Some turtles will never come out of it, and others will barely use it.
3 little turtles, you should at least have a 20 gall tank, and a much bigger one 50-75 gal as they get bigger, if you plan on keeping them together.
2007-01-03 13:45:07 · answer #2 · answered by D 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I have three red ear sliders, for over a year now. (had four but one died) They need enough water to swim in but must be able to get to a dry spot. For three turtles you want a decent sized tank, we have ours in a 30 gallon tank. Mine love to swim, they spend most of their time swimming and very little time (that i see) basking. I'd say we have the tank almost half filled with water. You don't want them to get out so don't fill too close to the top or they little guys will escape.
You have to get a basking lamp for them, with a dry spot or they will get sick and die - they can get a disease where their shells get really soft. They make things that float that are good when they are little my turtles started eatting it once they got bigger. (along with everything else, they would eat the rocks, one attacks the others)
They are very dirty, we upgraded the original filter we bought because we were cleaning the tank and it would be green a day later. Now we still have to clean the tank about once a week but I definitely suggest a good filter.
I feed them the reptomin floating food sticks from petco, when they were little I had to break them in half, now they can eat them whole. I had tried other brands before that and they wouldn't eat it.
2007-01-03 13:44:46 · answer #3 · answered by strtat2 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
My red eared slider (4 years old) eats the reptomin pellets daily and about a dozen feeder fish weekly. Mine is in a 50 gallon tank that has a sufficient amount of water and a dry place for him. Although, I never see him in the basking area, he seems to like to be in the water for the most part.
2007-01-03 15:18:27 · answer #4 · answered by Jessica M 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
well i dunno how big of a tank you are holding them in but i would say yous hould have them in about 6-7 inches of water but have a place they can entirely get out of the water. And when it comes to food you could try feeding it turtle pellets or there is Anole food which is a bunch of little dead bugs. You could try giving them that. I hope this helped
2007-01-03 16:55:51 · answer #5 · answered by Smooth Move EX-LAX 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Ohkay, i used to have 10 baby turtles! The mother crawled in my front yard on WET RAINY day and dug a hole and laid all her eggse in my front yard, we kept track of the days and when i twas time we dug them up because the ground had hardened. Once the babys were out and we had carefully put them in a very large fish tank with little water we fed them little tiny baby shrimp. They LOVED it! idk why becasue i tought it smelled HORRIBLE!! haha well i hope this helps you. Atleast a little.
2007-01-03 13:58:55 · answer #6 · answered by Ana R 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
my friend has a turtle and it likes ckrickets( alive so it gives it a workout) so go to the pet store and buy some. if it doesnt like them then get more dead flies
2007-01-03 13:44:09 · answer #7 · answered by pogodrummer 1 · 0⤊ 1⤋