Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I read on an old post that some of you use soft toothbrushes to clean your turtles. I got 2 RES a week ago. They are between 1.5" and 2". I am changing the water every other day until my bigger tank and filter arrive next week. Is bathing the turtles necessary? What do you put on the brush (obviously not soap)? Do you scrub them in the water or out? How often do you have to bathe them?

i do it like once a month. or i wait longer. i only do it if i see that green stuff on her back. and i scrub her in and out of water. i turn on the sink and wash her under the faucet.
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0.0.1 Red Eared Slider

Thanks for responding. I'm a bit overwhelmed with information on how to care for my little guys. My boyfriend thought they would be nice and simple pets to care for, so he didn't do any research before giving them to me; I'm running to the pet store every day for supplies as a result. End of rant

EEEK! Turtles really are not easy pets to keep, especially water turtles. When they are babies, they are relativly, but they grow very quickly, so just know that.
You only need to use the toothbrush if there is excess algae on the turtle's shell, although when the turtles sheds his scutes, all of that algae will come off. I wouldn't worry too much about "bathing" your turtles.

You might want to get the book, The General Care and Maintenance of Red-Eared Sliders by Phillipe de Vosjoli (1992)from Advanced Vivarium Systems, Santee, CA. It's an inexpensive paperback, and most pet stores have it, but it has a lot of good information. You can also order it from Amazon.com.

Katrina

np

Yeah, well, it's cheap, it's available, and it does have good info. So, almost anyone can get it locally and understand how to care for thier aquatic, without us having to go into great detail, and it's more in-depth than the care sheets on the Internet. I usually don't like de Vosjoli's books, but this one is a keeper.

Katrina

good book. Thanks

Nice to know I'm doing something right! Thanks.

Katrina

It's not really necessary to bath them, if their shells turn green with algae you can scrub it off with a toothbrush, but routine cleaning isn't necessary. Keeping their water clean is the important thing, if the water is clean, the turtles will be clean as well. Even the algae isn't harmful, and some people actually like the way it looks.

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I don't think you need to to bath your turtle since they are already in the water. I would suggest handling routinely to do inspections just to make you know them well enough to detect abnormalities. When you do your inspection, you can always rub off any goop developing on their shells

I got this cooter about a week ago and he was covered in algae/moss whatever. He doesnt seem to mind, I tried brushing it off with a toothbrush but its pretty embedded. He doesnt seem to mind and I think it looks pretty cool anyway.

Here he is basking with a RES.

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