Help! rescued water turtles and need info

[irishbelle30]

I work at an animal hospital and some "nice" person dumped two young turtles at the door. One is a western painted and one looks like a yellow cooter. I took them in because I have tortoises and have never had water turtles. What do I do with them. I have them in a 30 gallon tank. With a filter and have been feeding them store bought pellets.

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Whoops hit a button by accident. I gave them a basking light, I am assuming that they need a UVB light source as well. A I bought a small turtle dock. Am I missing anything ?

 

[Anthony P]

Sounds like you have a really good start going. A water conditioner, if you are using tap water can be pretty helpful and you can offer greens for the Cooter and a protein source for the painted. For young turtles, providing the right temperatures and opportunity to thermoregulate is probably most important.

Yellow cooter is not a common name for any species, so try to get us photos of the turtles so we can sure for you. Care won't change either way, but I'm sure you want to know what the animals are going forward, whether you keep them or for the potential adopters.

Good luck!

 

[sibi]

Yes, you do need to get them a uvb light source. Also, the water will get rancid pretty fast. You need a filtering system to keep the water clean. The filter size depends on the size of your tank. You'll also need to get a calcium block. Make sure they can vet on the floating dock because they'll need to get out of the water to bask from time to time. If the floating dock doesn't seem to work well for them, send me a Pm and I'll tell you what I did to make one. Aside from that, I think you'll be ok.

I work at an animal hospital and some "nice" person dumped two young turtles at the door. One is a western painted and one looks like a yellow cooter. I took them in because I have tortoises and have never had water turtles. What do I do with them. I have them in a 30 gallon tank. With a filter and have been feeding them store bought pellets.

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Whoops hit a button by accident. I gave them a basking light, I am assuming that they need a UVB light source as well. A I bought a small turtle dock. Am I missing anything ?

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[ascott]

Yes, pictures would be good; however, water turtles minimum needs

swimming space
heated water
basking spot to dry out
hiding spots (more so for babies)
good filter (one that can clean twice the size of tank you have--or more)
uva/uvb light
basking heat light/spot

 

[irishbelle30]

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The lights are in the far side. It has been awhile since I posted the last response. Busy at work.

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I am assuming the same "nice" person dumped two more turtles so there are four of them together. I am going to put them in a larger tank soon to give them more swimming space

 

[Yvonne G]

I'm not a water turtle person, but the one in the water is a red ear slider. The other one, because of the red on the bottom, may be a painted????? I can't see the other two good enough to tell.

 

[lkwagner]

Yeah I see a painted and a red ear slider. I use an under gravel filter for all my aquatic turtles and it keeps the water clean for a long time maybe try one of those if your filter doesn't seem to be keeping the water clean. Also, I'd throw some feeder fish in there for them to eat

 

[irishbelle30]

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I just changed the filter so hopefully later today the water will be clearer

 

[Steve_McQueen]

The basic rule for tank size is 10 gallons per inch of shell. Stock tanks are a nice economical solution for larger/more turtles. There's a really good guide to filters and filter media over at RedEaredSlider.com.

 

[sibi]

And I wouldn't forget to get a calcium block for them to pick at when they need it. I found it to be very important over the 25 years I've kept my water turtle.

Yes, pictures would be good; however, water turtles minimum needs

swimming space
heated water
basking spot to dry out
hiding spots (more so for babies)
good filter (one that can clean twice the size of tank you have--or more)
uva/uvb light
basking heat light/spot

 

[morloch]

Give them some earth worms as well. A cube of frozen blood worms will help too! I like the under water filter pump combo. Gives the water good flow.

 

[Anthony P]

I see a RES and an Eastern Painted Turtle Chrysemys picta picta. I'm on my cell phone, so I can't see exactly what that third turtle is...

 

[patilraosaheb]

They are really nice, take proper care.