Red Ear Slider Care?

Question

Ok so someone put a Red Ear Slider on Freecycle in my area and I'm going to go pic it up. I've cared for my friends 2 RES when she was on vacation, so I know about basic care but I don't know about daily care as far as owning. I was reading a couple of articles and one of them said if you have an outdoor area feel free to let him bask. I have an indoor/outdoor atrium that is completely closed off , no preditors can get in. What type of water area would be appropriate. Would a baby pool with a dry land area be OK? Any other advice would be awesome! Thank you!

Answer 1

Sounds as if you have a really good potential setup. A baby pool would be fine. As a matter of fact if it were my setup, I would leave the turtle there all the time unless the weather got too cold. The sun is a lot cheaper to operate than a UV bulb.

Answer 2

The turtle would have to be able to climb in and out of the tub, and have a warm island-type area where it can get completely dry, yes. If the atrium doesn't have actual outdoor warm sun (unobstructed by glass), the turtle will need a uv spectrum light and a heat lamp (not too hot). Sliders regularly have problems with shell fungus and can have kidney/liver problems if they don't have a balanced and age-appropriate diet. The water will get very dirty very fast so you might want to get a big canister filter for it. They're quite a handful and live up to 40 years.

Answer 3

If you have allot of $$$$ and start out with a 55 gal plus size tank and great filtration system for Aquatic turtles I say do it!

They are the cutest!

Sliders, cooter, painted, map, yellow bellied all are basically the same and require the same basic care. I have had my 2 slider  girls for 36 yrs. Plus an 8 and 5 yr old and now a 2 yr old adopted from this site.. Been in a pond for almost 7 yrs now.

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Contact the “www.anapsid.org/societies, for a turtle vet in your city and state

The bigger the environment the bigger the healthier the turtle. A  LARGE tank is needed so you don't have to keep buying as he gets bigger.

They sleep under water at night. They do that to stay away from night predators..

I have had before my pond, I used a kiddy pool with a constructed t-pee out of chicken wire to keep predators away, day and  night. I used a cement slab 12x12x1" and supported by 2 smaller bricks  to hold ity up so they can get under for shade and protection. Fill up to the top of the bricks and drop some feeders in there and them swim and bask.

Did you know that they need to bask under a reptile light UVA 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.

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

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 worm, meal worms, crickets, flies, crayfish and  anything that moves!

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.

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.

I wish you luck. Email if ya need help.

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