Baby mud turtle

Christyk

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Mar 22, 2019
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Village Mills Texas
BTW, Christyk, your baby turtle is very cute.

And now the lecture.. be very careful with heaters and small water volumes/levels. For the 5 gal tank, you cannot use a standard aquarium heater - that will cook the turtle. Instead, try a betta tank heater, which is a small heat pad. Always use a thermostat. Amazon has many inexpensive ON/OFF thermostats that work. Many are sold for seed germination - those are just fine. So a small heat pad and a thermostat will allow you to heat the low water level in the 5 gallon very easily and safely. Good luck.
Thanks so much. I'm using a very low watt under tank heater with a small spacer. His temps are in the mid 70's. I have set up his 10 gallon and am check temps before he goes in it.
 

Lemonade

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I had mud turtles which I enjoyed very much. I donated them to a museum when I had to move a couple years ago, and I still miss them.
So a few things I thought of -
1) I disagree that you need a heater. Sounds like you have one you like, so that's ok, but I don't think it's necessary. After all, they don't have one in the wild, and I would definitely keep it off at night to give them the more natural cooling period.
2) Mine LOVED the ZooMed floating log. They could hang out inside and look out the "windows" or climb on top to bask.
3) They tended to be picky eaters, not really big on the pellets, but maybe I had just spoiled them? I started raising my own guppies in a separate tank. When I "harvested" the guppies, I froze them to kill them. (The turtles are not strong enough swimmers to catch the live fish.) They KNEW when I had dropped the dead fish in the water. It must have given off some kind of certain odor. I also fed red worms, meal worms, and other live bugs.
4) I usually kept them indoors in a glass aquarium, where they were active and seemed to feel safe. But in the summer, to get some natural UVB, I would move them outdoors to a small wading pool, with a built-up sand area, rocks, plants, and of course, their floating log. It seemed they spent most of their time hiding, probably becoming more nocturnal, which might be more natural for them.

I always missed them when I moved them outside, as I miss them now. They were so much fun to watch. I hope you enjoy yours.
 

Pastel Tortie

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I favor a heater, or at least having that option onsite and readily available, since @Christyk mentioned her ambient room temperatures tend to run on the cool side. Once the hatchling passes the 2" or 2.5" mark, I agree with @Lemonade that the heater is optional. At that size, the corresponding water level could be a bit deeper, and larger bodies of water maintain their temperatures better. :)
 

Pastel Tortie

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@Christyk I would encourage you (pretty please) to weigh and measure your baby Cheese periodically, and to share that data with us. :)

I think that kind of information would be useful, not only to other mud (and musk) turtle keepers, but to prospective keepers as well.
 
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Pastel Tortie

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Do you have a particular scale that you would recommend?
I don't have a particular model or brand in mind. You will want a gram scale (kitchen scale) with a Tare function to zero the scale with an empty container on it. (So the scale subtracts the weight of the container for you.)

Check out the kitchen section at Walmart. There should be a few choices that won't cost much.
 

Christyk

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Mar 22, 2019
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Village Mills Texas
I don't have a particular model or brand in mind. You will want a gram scale (kitchen scale) with a Tare function to zero the scale with an empty container on it. (So the scale subtracts the weight of the container for you.)

Check out the kitchen section at Walmart. There should be a few choices that won't cost much.
Thanks. I'll look today.
 

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