How do you care for a 1 inch Slider Turtle who lives outside keep reading to details...?

Question

Well, I need help caring for a Red Eared Slider Turtle, who is 1 inch long. She lives in a 40 gallon tank, and lives outside, who gets real sunlight(not an artificial source). It also has a basking spot and lots of swim space. Can anyone help me to train it, and take care of it?

Answer 1

You can't train a turtle. You'll need a thermometer in the water and one by her basking spot to regulate temperature. Natural sunlight is good, however, you must maintain certain temps in their habitat. The water can't be below 60*F at any time (including night) and during the day it needs to be 75*F to 85*F. The basking spot needs to be 85*F to 95*F. Yes, they have to have the temperature controlled like this. Your turtle is still a hatchling and is too small to try to keep outside. You're gonna want to bring her in until she gets bigger, say, around 5" or so. Also, this turtle that you have has been sold to you ILLEGALLY. It is illegal to sell a turtle under 4" in the US. To keep it in doors, you'll need a UVA/UVB light (they need both). UVA stimulates sexual activity and heats the basking spot while UVB stimulates activity and senthesizes calcium and produces and senthesizes vitamin D3 which prevents metabolic bone disease. As far as food goes (yup, that's part of taking care of them too), you should feed her 50% worms, crickets, snails, etc, 25% good pelet food like T.Rex, and 25% greens like mustard, romaine lettuce and such. But since she's a baby you don't need to feed her greens yet. Let her grow to 4" and then give it the greens. Then you can start feeding fish to it too. It's too small to have fish yet but when it can, goldfish, rosy reds, platys, and other minnows are good for them.

Answer 2

A 40-gallon tank is small enough that heat from the sun will be able to penetrate all through the water and you'll run the risk of cooking your turtle. You should bring the tank inside and provide a UV light for basking. There are a lot of good pellet foods you can buy at pet stores, but you may need to start her on feeder guppies (you can get them at pet stores) and worms. Often, it takes a while to get turtles to accept pellets. You can't really train a turtle, but you can get her to come to you if she thinks you have food. This will happen over time because she will gradually start to associate you with food.

Answer 3

You can't train your turtle in the traditional sense. It will become accustomed to you feeding it on a regular basis. It will be less scared. 1 inch is extremely small! Just hatched? You can throw some reptomin pellets (you can buy these at any pet store and even walmart) in the tank and even a worm or two. It will eventually eat. If you keep your tank outside you will need to clean it pretty often, and be careful of feral and even domestic animals. They will figure out a way to get at the turtle, they are crafty. I'd recommend bringing it inside, or on a screened patio while you're away. It will need a way to also get away from the sun or the water will get way to hot! Good luck!

Answer 4

Yes i think you are doing a very good job but i suggest that you get a seperate tank to feed it but it doesn't really matter because you clean it out often. You should get a filter as well also i recommend a fluval 2 plus filter it goes underwater and clean water great. Also don't clean the tank that often when there is a filter the turtle will be stressed. Just change 2 cups of water and put back 2 cups every day. Remember to feed it in a different tank.

Answer 5

Well here you go:
Food: any type of aquatic turtle food from a pet store. When the turtle gets bigger it will be able to eat small minnows and other small fish.

In the winter make sure you take him/her inside if you don't it will most likely die unless you have the tank set up so that he can hibernate. Turtles can't really be trainded (I have found this out from my own 2 turtles) But i do reccomend holding him every once in a while so that he can get used to u.

Answer 6

well, if its in direct sunlight, and its only 40 gallons, i think the water would get WAY to hot for a little turtle, i think you should put it inside, or figure someway to keep the water cooler, maybe some ice in it, or maybe it doesnt get very hot where you live. You cant train a turtle, but make sure you make frequent water changes and feed it good, sounds like to got it covered to me though

Answer 7

You should feed it some feeder guppies, about 10 cents at any pet store. This will help the young turtle develop its hunting skills. At 1st it won't be able to catch them but it will get the hang of it.

Is the tank filtered? Filtered water really helps keep diseases at bay. You need to treat your turtle like a fish, treated water, filter system, etc.

Good luck with your turtle.

Answer 8

Train it? Training turtles is not a very useful thing to try. Other than coming to you for food, they don't do tricks.

Basic care? Try http://ww.redearslider.com for basics and http://www.austnsturtlepage.com for detailed info.