Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a redear slider I have had for two years that I got with about 10 others as babies. For some reason one of them never grew, he is the exact same size he was when I first got him two years ago. I figure it is just a dwarf but I have never heard of this in turtles. I am wondering if anyone else has ever heard of it?

Actually I have a turtle just like that.

About 3 years ago there was a pet store near my house that sold baby red eared sliders. My cousin bought 1 of them, I bought like 4. Well only my cousin's survived, and he gave up on it and gave it to me.

I had that turtle for 3 years, all the while it was still the size of a quarter, I figured it was a dwarf as well. During the summer of last year I traded it to me friend, he gave it back in December, it had doubled it's size.

All he fed it was worms, I was only feeding it turtle food. I think yours will grow, keep the water warm and feed it everyday, turtle food, chicken, turkey, fish, worms, I can almost bet on it growing by the time summer comes around.
Michael

Michael's Place

I cant remember where i heard this, but i read it somewhere in the last week. Turtles grow to their environment. Meaning, if its in a ten gallon all of its life, it never will get any bigger. Move it to a 100 gallon, and it will grow until the 100 gallon can no longer accomodate it. Not sure if this is true, but its just what i heard.

It is in a 55 gallon tank which it has been since I got it. I also dont beleive that they grow to their environment because all the others I got at the same time have outgrown the 55 gallon and I moved them to my pond. The other thing is I feed them all the same amount of food sometimes to much including crikets,beef,chiken,goldfish,earthworms,and mealworms. I just cant figure it out. I even put him in a 30 gallon by himself to see if that made any difference. Thanks for your replies

If this where the case, then you'd have sliders the size of car tires in lakes. It doesn't work that way. Turtles grow if fed properly and given proper husbandry, period, unless there are congenital/genetic problems. I could keep a mud turlte and a slider in the same tank, theoretically, and the slider would still grow larger than the mud, because that is what it is genetically programmed to do. Trust me, I've seen plenty of 4", 5", and even 6" sliders living in ten gallon tanks, because the owners never saw fit to upgrade as the turtle grew. A friend even took in a 5" slider whose shell was growing into a curve into the tail because the turtle was too small for the tank.

Please get the word out and dispell the myth - NO turtle should live in ten gallon tank it's whole life.

Katrina

If that's true I'm going to be more careful about bringing my dog to the edge of the river I live by, it's about 20 feet across! That would be SOME TURTLE living in there!

Ahem, anyway, no, that's not true. But I wish it were, because I'd have 20 teensy matamatas.
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Eryx - All the fun of a boa in a convenient pocket size!

I suppose there could be some sort of endocrin problem that is preventing the turtle from growing, if all of it's tank mates are growing.

Katrina