How can i get my 2 res to get used to me holding them?

Question

or at least stop jumping in the water when i enter the room. i want to be able to hold my 2 red eared sliders without them trying to bite me

Answer 1

Your a predator to them. I have had 2 of mine for 36 yrs now and I just in the last 5 yrs or so can approach their pond without zippin into the water. I can findly hold one of them she will swim to me.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/29035692@N0...

The bigger the environment the bigger the healthier the turtle. Remember 10 gallons for every inch of turtle. I have used kiddy pools and plastic pond liners from most nurseries and worked great.

Did you know that they need to bask under a reptile light UVA/UVB for 8 to 10 hrs a day for the vitamin D that they need to grow. So that means getting a turtle dock also.

Leave the heater on 75 to 78 degrees always.

Their water needs to be clean otherwise they get sick easily from dirty water cause they p**p allot.

Total Body length: 5-8" average, up to 12 inches max. Life span: 15-25+ years

Males have the longer front nails and are used in mating. And are considered mature at about 5 yrs old. You can’t start sexing till about  3” across.

You need a good filter system! Gravel larger than they can swallow.

You need to feed them feeder guppies, goldfish or minnows for protein and calcium daily drop 20 or so in the tanks and watch them disappear in a few days!

This way when they swim for their dinner they get exercise also!

They sleep at the bottom of rivers, streams. lakes or ponds or your tank to avoid predators like coyotes,  foxes, owls, hawks, possums, raccoons and even some wide mouth bass.

TOSS in a bird cuttle bone in the water for calcium. it will dissolve real slow and if they eat it that’s fine!!

They can have garden worms, meal worms, crickets, flies, crayfish small frogs, dragon flies and  anything that moves only as a treat.

They need leafy greens Romaine, Butter lettuce. (Iceberg and cabbage are bad for them, any other leafy greens will do) for vitamin A that they need at least 3 to 4 times a week.

You probably already know that they get sick easily, shell rot, respiratory sickness, lopsided swimming, coughing, blowing bubbles from their nose.

**Swollen cloudy eyes means lacking in Vitamin A. Which we all need for good eyes. Google ‘vegetables with Vitamin A.

I wish you luck.

Answer 2

It's easier to train you not to hold them. As far as their jumping into the water when somebody enters the room, that's where they feel safe. After all, somebody might want to pick them up and hold them. Didn't their trying to bite you give you a clue that they don't like to be held?

Answer 3

They jump because they are probably basking and instinctively they jump into the water to escape threats and your not supposed to hold them because they carry a bacteria called salmonella and they get enough exercise by swimming.

don't hold them its bad

Answer 4

You should've got a mammal.