New aquatic turtle owner

Brittany B

New Member
Joined
Sep 10, 2017
Messages
3
Location (City and/or State)
Texas
IMG_0004.JPG IMG_1722.JPG So I thought it would be a good idea in March, to buy two yellow bellied sliders in Florida and bring them home to Texas. What I did not anticipate is how much goes into properly caring for these pets.

A lot of the threads Ive read through on this page make sense, however I noticed all the posts deal with land tortoises. Ive done tons of research, talked to numerous pet store associates and am finding that my turtles are still suffering from pyramiding (not bad, beginning stages).

Im doing everything I know and have been told to do, but I would love some tips for keeping my aquatic turtles healthy and happy. I am going to introduce leafy greens such as kale and romaine to their diets, but what else can I do?

I have a UV light and a heating lamp. I keep their tank at 80 degrees at all times and I have plenty of filtration. Do they need to be outside at all? Since their aquatic can they be put in direct sunlight for hours?

Any help is appreciated. I am uploading a picture of my bigger one, his name is chomper and he loves to eat.
 

Aeva

Member
Joined
Aug 16, 2017
Messages
64
Location (City and/or State)
Madagascar
Hello and welcome! I had many problems too being an "accidental" turtle owner. But I found many helpful advices here, and hope you will find all you want! This community is awesome...
 

Jay1718

New Member
Joined
Jul 15, 2017
Messages
19
Location (City and/or State)
South Carolina, USA
Hello and Welcome.
Lol yeah they are a lot of work sometimes.
As far as introducing them to veggies, your best bet is tough love. If you only offer veggies for a few days or a week or so, they will learn to eat them.
I am no expert by any means but I have a rescued Red eared slider and that's how I got him to eat his greens. I also have around six different kinds of pellets to mix things up. He only gets pellets about twice a week.
I take Bruno outside on nice days sometimes. The sun is always good, but if you provide good uv lighting your turtles should be fine.
If you need anything shoot me a message, granted I might not have the answers but I'm happy to help
 

SteveW

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Joined
May 4, 2015
Messages
255
Hey there. It's not actually pyramiding, like a tortoise would, its retained scutes. The best approach is to augment the diet with food containing wheat germ. Look for omega 1 koi pellets. I use them as part of the rotation. Also, omega 1 algae pellets have spirulina and a different profile, so easy way to vary diet.
 

tglazie

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10 Year Member!
Joined
Jul 21, 2010
Messages
631
Location (City and/or State)
San Antonio, TX
Hello Brit,

Your turtles are still very young, so I wouldn't worry too much about them not consuming greens. Baby Trachemys, in my experience, tend not to eat greens. I've raised many on a rotating variety of pellets, commercially raised crickets, commercially raised roaches, and earthworms. I leave free floating anachris in the enclosure with them, and this plant tends to thrive under high intensity lighting and the nitrogen waste rich environment created by the turtles. So long as you have good filtration, these plants should do well enough. If your turtles eat them, great. If not, they look pretty in your tank. Various cooters tend to be extremely herbivorous at a young age (I have four northern red bellies that I raised for their first year indoors; I've since relocated them to a three hundred gallon stock tank outdoors, but when they were inside, they would demolish any plant material I threw into their tank), sliders not so much, but as your slider grows, it will become more and more herbivorous, but when they are young, a diet high in animal protein is both natural and beneficial. Steve made a good point about wheat germ and the retained scutes, and I've never seen pyramiding in any water turtle. This isn't to say that there can't be other forms of shell deformity existing due to dietary deficiencies and environmental mismanagement, but pyramiding isn't something to worry about. Given the growth of your animal thus far, it looks like you're doing a decent enough job.

Regarding sunlight, you can replicate this indoors with a mercury vapor bulb or a high wattage heat lamp in conjunction with a uvb emitting fluorescent tube fixture. I've gotten away with using only an incandescent heat lamp and twice daily trips outside in the past, though. It really just depends upon how much time you have on your hands to watch your turtle run around outdoors. Ultimately, you will want to set up an outdoor pond. This can be something simple, such as a livestock drinking tank with a floating basking buoy, or a sunken inground liner filled with thousands of gallons of water. There are a lot of threads here where people show their various pond ideas, so there is much to be gleaned from that. I can tell you, having kept yellowbellies to adulthood in the past, that they are large turtles, and any attempt to keep them inside will ultimately prove more of a pain in the rear than trying to keep them outdoors. Yellowbellies are as adaptable as their red eared cousins, and they can be kept outdoors year round in Texas, given that their range extends up into Maryland.

Outdoor keeping, though, is best for older animals. You will have to predator proof your turtles when they are outdoors, especially in Texas. I occasionally get raccoons around my property, but I keep them out using various strategies, namely an electric fence on the outside of my turtle fence, keeping a compost heap on the outskirts of my property and surrounding said compost heap with small animal traps. I also cover animal enclosure housing a turtle or tortoise less than five inches shell length with a screen cover, to keep the birds away. Many things to consider for the future, but for now, just look at how to best improve your indoor keeping situation.

T.G.
 

Brittany B

New Member
Joined
Sep 10, 2017
Messages
3
Location (City and/or State)
Texas
Hello Brit,

Your turtles are still very young, so I wouldn't worry too much about them not consuming greens. Baby Trachemys, in my experience, tend not to eat greens. I've raised many on a rotating variety of pellets, commercially raised crickets, commercially raised roaches, and earthworms. I leave free floating anachris in the enclosure with them, and this plant tends to thrive under high intensity lighting and the nitrogen waste rich environment created by the turtles. So long as you have good filtration, these plants should do well enough. If your turtles eat them, great. If not, they look pretty in your tank. Various cooters tend to be extremely herbivorous at a young age (I have four northern red bellies that I raised for their first year indoors; I've since relocated them to a three hundred gallon stock tank outdoors, but when they were inside, they would demolish any plant material I threw into their tank), sliders not so much, but as your slider grows, it will become more and more herbivorous, but when they are young, a diet high in animal protein is both natural and beneficial. Steve made a good point about wheat germ and the retained scutes, and I've never seen pyramiding in any water turtle. This isn't to say that there can't be other forms of shell deformity existing due to dietary deficiencies and environmental mismanagement, but pyramiding isn't something to worry about. Given the growth of your animal thus far, it looks like you're doing a decent enough job.

Regarding sunlight, you can replicate this indoors with a mercury vapor bulb or a high wattage heat lamp in conjunction with a uvb emitting fluorescent tube fixture. I've gotten away with using only an incandescent heat lamp and twice daily trips outside in the past, though. It really just depends upon how much time you have on your hands to watch your turtle run around outdoors. Ultimately, you will want to set up an outdoor pond. This can be something simple, such as a livestock drinking tank with a floating basking buoy, or a sunken inground liner filled with thousands of gallons of water. There are a lot of threads here where people show their various pond ideas, so there is much to be gleaned from that. I can tell you, having kept yellowbellies to adulthood in the past, that they are large turtles, and any attempt to keep them inside will ultimately prove more of a pain in the rear than trying to keep them outdoors. Yellowbellies are as adaptable as their red eared cousins, and they can be kept outdoors year round in Texas, given that their range extends up into Maryland.

Outdoor keeping, though, is best for older animals. You will have to predator proof your turtles when they are outdoors, especially in Texas. I occasionally get raccoons around my property, but I keep them out using various strategies, namely an electric fence on the outside of my turtle fence, keeping a compost heap on the outskirts of my property and surrounding said compost heap with small animal traps. I also cover animal enclosure housing a turtle or tortoise less than five inches shell length with a screen cover, to keep the birds away. Many things to consider for the future, but for now, just look at how to best improve your indoor keeping situation.

T.G.
Thanks for all of the great suggestions, will really help in the long run. Unfortunately the outdoor enclosure is out of the question for me at this point. I live in an apartment on the second floor. Eventually thinking of buying a home, hopefully they will not get too large before I am able to.

I will definitely add more variety to their diet. They seem to have a hard time eating the zoomed round pellets but I refuse to feed them reptomin anymore. Taking out the reptomin has really helped with their tank cleanliness. Before I was doing full water changes once a week which I know isnt recommended. However they were swimming in water I couldnt see through, thats how bad it was after a week. I have a 40 gal tank right now but am planning on moving to a 60 or 65 as soon as I can.

Thanks for all the advice, much appreciated.
 

Brittany B

New Member
Joined
Sep 10, 2017
Messages
3
Location (City and/or State)
Texas
Hey there. It's not actually pyramiding, like a tortoise would, its retained scutes. The best approach is to augment the diet with food containing wheat germ. Look for omega 1 koi pellets. I use them as part of the rotation. Also, omega 1 algae pellets have spirulina and a different profile, so easy way to vary diet.
Do you feed them something different everyday? What if they are picky and refuse to eat one over the other causing them to not eat?
 

tglazie

Well-Known Member
10 Year Member!
Joined
Jul 21, 2010
Messages
631
Location (City and/or State)
San Antonio, TX
Funny that you mention reptomin. When I was a little kid, I kept a couple red ear babies in a twenty gallon tall tank, and as I just had a rim filter from the seventies on the side of that thing (with the carbon foam insert, the one with the blue floss), my filtration was terrible, so I ended up doing a lot of water changes. Ultimately, to keep from having the turtles make a mess of the reptomin, I would meticulously break apart the reptomin sticks into bite sized pellets. It would take forever, but it did delay water changes for a little while. Back then, though, there weren't many options available. Today, I use a variety of cichlid pellets to feed my babies, supplemented with prekilled feeder roaches, mealworms, earth worms, and bloodworms. Your turtle would have to be fairly picky to turn his/her nose up at any of these, but hey, I've encountered my fair share of weird ones. For instance, I tried out some green Hikari pellets on my Jack Dempsey cichlid, and that mean little lady doesn't like them. So, I figured, feed 'em to my giant female red ear, my colony of pink bellied sidenecks, and my four northern red bellies. Who would've figured? None of them liked it. Next, I might try grinding it up and throwing it into the roach chow mix. That's the great thing about having lots of animals. You've got to feed everyone, so feed in storage never goes to waste. Someone doesn't like something, try it on someone else. To start your kids off, I usually recommend TOP FIN floating/sinking pellets. The only thing I don't like about the stuff is that it is afflicted by a red dye that turns the seal on my troughs pink. Fortunately, a little scrubbing fixes this, but this is why I recommend a varied diet.

T.G.
 

Redfool

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5 Year Member
Joined
Jul 11, 2017
Messages
379
Location (City and/or State)
Central Florida
Welcome to the forum. Somewhere I think I still have a clear round bowl with an island in the middle and a plastic palm tree from the old..old days.
 

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