Does anyone know anything about those turtles you can get from a pet store called "Red ear sliders"?

Question

Please tell me anything you know about them, good and bad. Someone just gave me one. I have two kids, one is 2 and one is 6 months. I have the turtle out of their reach for "viewing" only. But I would like to know more about it to decide whether it's a good idea to keep it. Thanks!

Answer 1

Until they are a year old they CAN carry salmonella. Generally, until they're around 4 inches, I wouldn't allow your kids to hold it. They make neat pets to watch, as they love eating minnows and crickets and things, so as a "viewing" only pet, they're great! But, again, until you've had him for a year, I'd definitely keep him away from the kids.

They need a heater in their water, it should be kept at around 75degrees or else they get lethargic and cannot digest their foods properly. They also need a basking area, and it should be kept around 85 degrees.
They can eat the pellets from any petstore and be just fine, but as a treat they like crickets (live or freez-dried, though live make less mess..) and minnows, I wouldn't keep them with fish or anything, as they're nippers.

You'll definitely want a filter for his tank, as they're very messy.. Mine has a 10 gallon filter and it keeps the water extremely clean, though he only has about 5 gallons of water.


I'd keep him, personally. They honestly aren't a lot of work once you get their habitat sorted, and they're really fun to watch...
Below is a care sheet for them, good luck.


Edit;;
It's only illegal to sell them as BABIES, because after a year they don't carry salmonella any longer. People get away with selling them as babies because they say its for "Educational Purposes-" but petstores can carry them once they're older, legally.

Answer 2

Red-ear Sliders are a typical pet 'pond turtle'. The Pond turtles are good pets for people who like that sort of thing, and a major pain otehrwise.

For example. to keep a pond turtle happy, you need a good pond (figure about 10 gallons per inch of shell length, heated to about 75-80F, using about 3 times bigger filter than a fish tank that size would need).

You also need sunlight. It won't work if it passes through glass orplastic, so we need to fake it with a basking site lamp and a lamp that provides UVB rays.

For the diet, try a mix of turtle pellets and live or frozen/thawed 'fish foods' like crickets, snails, krill, worms, etc.

Turtles are definately a 'hands off' pet. Handling them causes unneeded stress (about like you would feel being handled by a 20' tall alien creature), and they can carry Salmonella with them (the same thing that comtainimated chicken can carry.)

http://www.redearslider.com is a great website for these turtles.

Personally- you sound ambivilant, and you have two young kids. I would not invest the time and money this will take, and I say this even though I love turtle pets!

Answer 3

I had one a long time ago. They need to be in a tank with a low water line and some type of rock that is above water level so they can lay out and stay dry. They also need a basking light to stay warm. This stuff can be found at most pet stores. The only concern is that they do carry salmonella so if you or your children are going to handle the turtle then be sure to wash your hands really good right away. They are illegal to sell in the US because of this but I have seen them sold anyways.

Answer 4

I love having my RES...but if u want to keep him as a pet, be prepared for your new hobby...turtles! They need all proper equipment..big enough tank, proper lighting, filter, basking area and lots of tank cleaning...I give my RES new water every 2-3 weeks and spray out his tank...don't use soap. They are great to watch and they enjoy watching people. Make sure your children, don't pick them up unsupervised, they can bite and depending on where they bite, it will prob hurt. They are much better off not being handled regularly. 1 min they can be still in your hand then the next they will try and take off! My RES has never went to bite me, but i stay away from his head. And washing hands is a must if handling the turtle or anything in his tank! Good Luck

Answer 5

A red-ear slider is an excellent pet for children. The only bad thing is that they can get quite large and they live for a long time. It's kind of a long term investment of time and energy, but it will show your children the responsibility of having a pet. Don't let it go into the wild should you decide you don't want it though.

Answer 6

Here's your basic care info. Really not good around children as they may carry salmonilla.

TANK

You will need a tank that allows for 10 gallons of water per square inch of shell. For instance, a 5" turtle will need about a 55 gallon aquarium. There's enough room to swim and then a little so that they can come all the way out of the water to bask. You will need to invest in either a filter specifically made for aquatic turtles or a fish filter that can do twice the amount of water in the tank. For instance, if you have a 50 gallon tank, the fish filter must say it's able to handle 100 gallons of water. This is because turtles are way more messy than fish. You'll need to replace the filter at least once a week, more if necessary. You'll need to line to bottom of the tank with river rocks. These work best because small pebbles are easily swallowed by turtles but extremely hard to digest and can result in digestive problems. They will need to have a landing made out of river rocks on one side of their tank (mine is the width of the tank) that allows them to come completely out of water to bask. It needs to be wide enough and long enough for your turtle.

LIGHTING

Your turtle needs both UVB and UVA lighting. The UVB prevents metabolic bone disease, synthesizes calcium, and produces and synthesizes vitamin D3. This light aso helps with digestion. In a 55 gallon tank, a 5.0 UVB light will do the trick. When you get to larger tanks, you'll need a bigger light like a 10.0. You'll need a basking light. These produce UVA so these take care of 2 duties at once. They provide your turtle with the UVA it needs and heats their basking spot and tank. I recomend a 75 watt bulb to 100 watt bulb.

HEATING

Their water needs to always be between 75 and 80 degreese Farenheight. Their basking area needs to be between 85 and 95 degreese F. Any hotter, and you'll burn the turtle. Any colder and it will freeze. Turtles can't produce their own heat so the temperature around them helps them regulate body temps. At night, it's ok for the temperature gets to 60 degreese F but never any lower. Their UVA/heat lamp should be placed over their basking area. My heat lamp heats both the basking area and water but sometimes it's not this lucky. If the temperatures fail to reach these temperatures, you'll want to invest in a water heater. You'll also want a water themometer placed in the water area of their tank and a land thermometer placed near their basking spot to regulate temperature.

DIET
Turtles need a balanced diet. 50% feeder fish (minnows, goldfish, rosy reds, etc, I've fed mine these and tetras, zeebra fish, scissortails, and small stuff like that) snails, crickets, grasshoppers, krill, and baby shrimp, 25% a good pelet food like ZooMed's or T-Rex (my preferance on this is ZooMed's because the T-Rex float to the bottom and make a huge mess in the tank) but brands like Wardley's and ReptoMin suffice if they have to, and finally 25% greens like mustard, collard greens, and other dark leafy greens. They don't need to have greens until they are over 4" in diameter and they don't need feeder fish until then too. Sometimes turtles lack calcium (which if they have the proper diet should not but it happens) or they have over-active jaws. An easy and inexpensive way to cure this is with a calcium bone (also called turtle bones) that float. This is always avalible and mine nibbles on it occasionally. You really don't need supplements for vitamins if you provide them with the proper habitat. It is a hard job to supplement them with the vitamins and such that they recieve in their diet and from their UV lighting.

CLEANING THE TANK

You'll probably have to clean the tank once a week if not more. I find that this is easily done with a water syphon. You can get these sepcially made for aqariums that both drain and fill the tanks. You'll want to have a back up tank or tub to put your turtle in while doing a tank cleaning. You'll also want to put any feeder fish in this too. The rocks really just need a good rinse but to really get the tank clean you have to take them out. I spray the tank with ZooMed's Wipe Out and it helps kill and prevent salmonilla, which is very common in reptiles. You could simply use anti-bacterial and animal safe soap, like Dawn, to clean the tank also.

MAINTANING A CLEAN TANK

This is really not as hard as it sounds as long as you change the filter properly. You can also use snails (sucker fish aren't really recomended as the turtle may eat them) which the turtle may eat but are really inexpensive and really good for the tank. You can also add a plant called Anacharis which eats the turtle feces, looks good in the tank, is an oxygenizer, and the turtle may eat it. You can also add water conditioner like ZooMed's Repti-Safe which reduces pH, adds electrolites, helps ammonia build up, and a big list of good stuff. To help control disease, you can also use a turtle health conditioner (TetraFauna makes a really good one). You can also add Exo-Terra's Biotize to the tank to help eat the turtle feces but is pretty uncesseary. For new arivals you may want to add something that adds electrolites as it is kinda tramatizing when they're moved around a lot and good for new arrivals. A good thing for this, I've found, is Exo-Terra's Electrodize. If you want to get really paranoid you can always use pH strips too to make sure the water is perfect for them.