Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My son came home from the pet store with two turtles. He says they are aquatic turtles. We have successfully kept a toad for a little over a year now. But I know nothing about turtles. The guy at the pet store sold him some food but there were no instructions on how often to feed them or where or when to feed them. Also I was concerned about the level of water in their tanks. Can you please help?

Thanks, Susan

>>My son came home from the pet store with two turtles. He says they are aquatic turtles.

We need a good description or a photograph to know what kind of turtles you have. Some different species require different care. Also how big are these turtles and what do you keep them in?

You may also want to consider returning them. Aquatic turtles are a huge responsibility and require much more care than most other reptiles. Also expect to spend about $500 or more in the first year to get them setup properly. Pet stores really shouldnt be allowed to sell aquatic turtles.
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iturnrocks.com

Well that's what I thought. They are about 2 inches long and almost 2 inches across. He has one in a Critter Keeper that is about the size of a large shoe box and the other in an oval plastic container. The oval container has ramp and an island in the middle with a plastic palm tree. The Keeper has a floating island that looks like a plastic log.

Here is how he came to get them. He went to Ohio to visit his girlfriend. They bought them at a petstore there. Then he brought them home. We live 3 hours away in West Virginia. It is not likely we can return them. I did not even know about them until we got home from vacation yesterday.

>>Well that's what I thought. They are about 2 inches long and almost 2 inches across. He has one in a Critter Keeper that is about the size of a large shoe box and the other in an oval plastic container. The oval container has ramp and an island in the middle with a plastic palm tree. The Keeper has a floating island that looks like a plastic log.
>>
>>Here is how he came to get them. He went to Ohio to visit his girlfriend. They bought them at a petstore there. Then he brought them home. We live 3 hours away in West Virginia. It is not likely we can return them. I did not even know about them until we got home from vacation yesterday.

One thing you should do is report the pet store that sold them. It is illegal in the USA to sell aquatic turtles under 4" long.

Im guessing you probably have sliders. Look forward to purchasing at lease a 120 gallon aquarium eventually. If you want to save money, a stock tank is the way to go.

Sliders are large aquatic turtles reaching sizes of over 12 inches long.

They generally have a red bar on the side of their head.

If this is the turtle you have, you may consider posting in the RES and other sliders forum, or search for RES or Slider caresheets. The RES is the most written about aquatic turtle on the internet. Because so many are bought when cute and then neglected or released into the wild where they compete with native turtles, or bring microorganisms they pick up in captivity that harm the wild turtles.

If you want an easy pet, I reccomend a snake.

The picture below is an adult slider in a 5 gallon bucket. This turtle was photographed and released. Hard to believe that little guy can grow up to be so big.

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iturnrocks.com

Hey thanks for all the information. I went and looked at them again. They may be closer to 3 inches but they still seem so small. The mark on their heads is yellow. The shells are dark green with yellow bellies. There is a dark spot on each section of the belly. I wish I could show you a picture. My son will be home from work this evening and he has ways to put pictures on the internet
Thanks again for all your information.
Susan

They might be painteds which are smaller then sliders but require the same basic care. Check out www.chelonia.org for pictures which should help you identify them.

The first thing you want to do is get them into decent housing. A large Rubbermaid type container will work fine. They need a heater (water temp about 80°), filter, thermometer, UVB light, basking area with heat lamp. Here are some sites to help you care for them properly:

www.anapsid.org/reslider.html
www.unc.edu/~dtkirkpa/stuff/overview.html
hometown.aol.com/Mite37/AquaticTurtles.htm
www.chelonia.org/Articles/trachemyscare.htm
exoticpets.about.com/cs/reptilesturtles/a/aquaticturtles.htm

Could be yellowbellied sliders, too.

I think it's illegal to sell sliders in Ohio without a permit from DNR, too, no matter what the size.

I'll try to e-mail a care sheet tonight. Mom of 2, please e-mail me off list if I don't get back to you tonight.

Katrina

Went to the local pet store this afternoon. They think the babies are painted turtles. My son is home now and working on registering for the forum. He took pictures and will post them soon. We did get them outside today before it rained and we put them both in the same tank. Thanks for all the great advise. With you all and the local pet store I think we have a game plan.

Thanks again,
Susan

I am the responsible son with the 2 new turtles. The fella who was selling them said that they didn't require much. Claimed that, in the tanks they were sold with, they would not grow large, but that you could invest in a larger tank for them to grow into. He also advised that they have their water changed once a week and that was all you really need to do, and feed them, of course.
I figured there would be a little more, but it seemed simple enough. Well, while I wasn't orginally ready to invest as much money into them, I should not have a problem obtaining what is needed. As a matter of fact, my mother and I were planning on going to the pet store this weekend, if not tomorrow night. I am very interrested in these little creatures and would like to do right for them in the lines of keeping them happy and healthy.
As far as their species, I know a little. The salesman claimed that he had to different types of the same thing (I don't know exactly where terms like genis and species fit correctly here). I didn't get what kind of turtle they were, but that one is know as "Tribal" and is known for having black dots all over their shells. The others were "normal" and had plain green shells.
The pictures I took weren't very good because my PDA is all I have for a digital camera and it isn't really meant to take pictures.

Sorry about the malfunctioning pictures. You may try pointing your browser at:

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/walker_of_wind/detail?.dir=/1968&.dnm=75d9.jpg&.src=ph&.tok=phQsGRDBRP5_mgcI
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/walker_of_wind/detail?.dir=/1968&.dnm=6f3c.jpg&.src=ph&.tok=ph96GRDBw2pQ9Jxv

Both look like sliders to me. If you don't see red on the head, then they are probably yellowbellied sliders. You can try www.chelonia.org and click on Photo Gallery. There should be some hatchling pictures under the Trachemys gneus.

I'll send my version of a care sheet off-line. It's very basic, though, so some of the recommended books and websites should be investigated further.

I'd still recommend calling the FDA on the pet store. You can find your regional FDA office in the blue pages of the phone book. This article describes the problem with stores selling hatchlings sliders.
http://www.metropets.org/Newsroom/articles/slider.php

Katrina

Hi there "responsible son" Nice to meet you.

Unfortunately the person who sold you these turtles LIED! They do take a lot of care and the growing to the size of they environment is a myth. Also, the selling of hatchlings is illegal so feel free to report the store where you bought them.

Please get these little guys in a proper environment real soon as it is essential to their health. It's great that you are willing to invest what is necessary to take care of them properly.

>>The pictures I took weren't very good because my PDA is all I have for a digital camera and it isn't really meant to take pictures.
>>
You should get rid of the bowl with the palm tree as soon as possible.

Here are your pictures

>>

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iturnrocks.com

i work in a petstore so i run into the opposite end of this problem .. we get a lot of people who want to buy a turtle but are not willing to invest money in them.. petco has a good policy to remedy this (i can refuse to sell them the turtle and they will back me up) but it is hard to ensure that they wont just come back when im not there or lie about what they are going to come back and get later.. i wont sell them unless the person buys at least an appropriate sized tank and all necessary lights and a heater... the problem that i run into is other employees that sell them when im not available.. and that dont understand or care enough to make sure the customer realizes what a commitment and investment they are..

im thrilled that you are willing to spend the money to take care of them and take responsibility for thier welfare.. as a few others posted, i urge you to call the FDA on the petstore they were bought from.. this sort of thing is far too common and although customers can sometimes claim innocence, the stores are usually aware that this is illegal.. i live in georgia and every summer have flocks of people who buy "quarter turtles" in florida while on vacation ..some vendors will even lie and say that they stay that small and will live in a fish bowl happily ever after.. if more people would report this type of thing, maybe the law would be taken more seriously.. i have threatened to call the FDA on a petstore i used to work at after my boss thought it would be a great idea to sell baby alligator snappers and yellowbelly sliders (yellowbellys are native and illegal to sell and alligator snappers are a threatened species).. the turtles were sent back to the vendor as soon as i told him i would report him.

mostly i just wanted to applaud you on doing the research and deciding to provide them with the necessary environment.. a lot of people would have just let them die, whether through ignorance or just not caring enough to take responsibility for them..
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my pets: clown treefrogs, reed frogs, big eyed treefrogs, tiger leg monkey frogs, gray treefrogs, milk frogs, cuban treefrogs, whites tree frog, green treefrogs, squirrel treefrogs, blue webbed gliding treefrog, chameleon treefrogs?, dusky salamanders, tiger salamander, veiled chameleon, box turtles, mud turtle, map turtle, yellowbelly slider, florida softshell, two saltwater tanks, four cats, two chinchillas, and a boyfriend.