Can I put hatchling turtles together?

[Rubyfryk]

I own a pool cleaning company so I am apparently going to be finding baby turtles a lot this time of year…. this is my first spring in business. I rescued a baby turtle awhile back that I have in a 40 gallon tank in my house, that I decided to keep because it was sick for awhile and I didn’t wanna release him because I’d had him so long. I’ve been recusing them since, normally takes them a few days to recover from the cold/chlorine/exhaustion in a separate little 9 gallon tub with a heater/lights/water/substrate/basking platform and then I take them back and release them into the closest body of water is to where I found them. The two I have right now though are not recovering as quickly as the others have, my question is…. can I throw them in the tank with the turtle I am keeping temporarily? They are all the same size. Literally like an inch at most. The one I’m keeping is a River Cooter. The two others are a Red Eared Slider and a Yellow Bellied Slider. I don’t have a filter in the temporary tub and it is also set up on my kitchen table, very in the way lol. I don’t want to put them in with the other turtle but I also don’t think they are strong enough to be released quite yet.

 

[wellington]

Where are you finding them that they need to be rescued?

 

[Yvonne G]

Where are you finding them that they need to be rescued?

I got the impression he's finding them when he goes to clean a client's pool.

In my opinion you should try to find a turtle rescue to give the babies to. Some states have laws against releasing turtles

As to putting them together, it's a crap shoot. Occasionally baby turtles are cannibalistic. As to the different species thing, I think it's ok to mix water turtle species, but if one is weak and recouperating he needs to be separate

 

[wellington]

I got the impression he's finding them when he goes to clean a client's pool.

I did too when he mentioned chlorine. But could that many be jumping into pools? Just never really heard that one before. But I guess if it's the closest water.

 

[Rubyfryk]

Where are you finding them that they need to be rescued?

Yeah I’m sorry I didn’t clarify that, I’m finding them in the pools. It’s really wild, I am finding A LOT of them. I guess as they are leaving their nests to find water they are finding a pool first? Unfortunately most of the babies I’m finding aren’t alive anymore. 😔

 

[Rubyfryk]

I got the impression he's finding them when he goes to clean a client's pool.

In my opinion you should try to find a turtle rescue to give the babies to. Some states have laws against releasing turtles

As to putting them together, it's a crap shoot. Occasionally baby turtles are cannibalistic. As to the different species thing, I think it's ok to mix water turtle species, but if one is weak and recouperating he needs to be separate

Yeah, they are ending up in the pools and I’m finding more dead than alive. 😔 I’m assuming they are just finding the pool before the pond. I will call some sort of rescue tomorrow and see what they say, I don’t wanna just leave the turtles to die and I definitely feel like they wouldn’t make it if I took them straight from the pool and threw them in the pond because they are normally really, really unwell for awhile. I don’t really know what I’m doing though, so I probably should have called someone to begin with. 😅 I’m not gonna put the new ones in with the other one though because it would be absolutely awful if the stronger one tried to eat the others. I did a good water change on the sick turtle tub just to be safe to make sure it wasn’t getting bad from sitting. It still looked pretty clean, but just to be careful. I’ll call around tomorrow!

 

[wellington]

Yeah I’m sorry I didn’t clarify that, I’m finding them in the pools. It’s really wild, I am finding A LOT of them. I guess as they are leaving their nests to find water they are finding a pool first? Unfortunately most of the babies I’m finding aren’t alive anymore. 😔

Wow that is crazy. Sad that so many are dead. Very nice of you though to take them in to try and save them.

 

[Yvonne G]

Wow that is crazy. Sad that so many are dead. Very nice of you though to take them in to try and save them.

They probably swim themselves to death. They need to be able to rest close to the surface so they can breathe, and not very strong as hatchlings

 

[wellington]

They probably swim themselves to death. They need to be able to rest close to the surface so they can breathe, and not very strong as hatchlings

You think it's that or the chlorine is what I was thinking?

 

[Rubyfryk]

They probably swim themselves to death. They need to be able to rest close to the surface so they can breathe, and not very strong as hatchlings

When I found them they were swimming for dear life at the top of the pool, it was terrible. I have no idea how long they had been in there. I hadn’t been at that pool for two days, so it could have been awhile. There was another baby at the bottom of the pool, who I’m sure not long before I got there was fighting at the top too. I got him out and he living for about 8 hours but eventually passed. 😞 I think he probably had too much water in his lungs.