Reptile & Amphibian Forums

ok, i work in a petshop and had someone dump these two turles on the doorstep, i felt so sorri for them so deicded to take them in myself as Personal pets.
i have no idea properly what type one of them is, i posted pics of it on the What kind? forum and the responce was a "florida cooter"? i live in the uk, so have never heard this term used b4, so dont know what our common day is for it, but im assuming you guys know what this means, this cooter though is a male (short little stubbie tail)
the other one i know is a yellow bellied terrapin female.

he is approx 3 inches long and about 2 inches wide. she about 5 inches and 3 inches wide.
at the minute i have got them in a 36 inch, by 12" tank. containing 7" of water. i have a chunk of "rainbow" rock which protrudes the surface giving them a escape from the water if they so wish, as well as a lerge piece of bog wood which also comes out of the water creating a dry land section aswell as a little cave underneath it. this piece of bog wood also has 2 large bushy plastic plants around it adding to the cave system also. at the opposite end of the tank i have a internal power filter to circulate and clean the water, i clean the sponge on this once a week, over the tank i also have a standard 5% UBV lighting system which is on for 10 hours a day. i have a thermometer in the tank and it reads the water temperature at 23C so i didnt think a fishtank heater would be needed.

as for foods, there are very few custom turtle foods available on the market over here, so i am feeding them primerilary on dry cat food, with bits of greens (lettuce and cabbage) thrown in once or twice a week, with an occasional treat of black crickets every 2 or 3 weeks.

can you please tell me if im doing anything wrong, or advice me on any additional things i may need? the last thing i want to do is cause them any suffering.

thankyou

sounds like you have done a pretty good job. i would have a basking area in the middle under a heat lamp. you have a rock there but i would put something a little wider there so they both can get out at the same time and bask comfortably. as for the food i would go with a high quality fish food, im not sure what you have over there but i would go with the best. there should be some sort of calcium in the ingrediants as well as a vitamin D3 supplement that may be labeled as animal sterol. hikari ciclid gold food is good, if you have it or can order it online i would probably get the mini size. you can have the water deeper if you want, they're good swimmers. i would use a whiper 30i internal filter. the turtle dock is usually good for turtles like yours. medium would be better than a small, they would probably sink a small. large is huge and would probably be too big. if you have those things available or can ge them online go for it. if you have any other questions just ask. thank you for giving them such a good home.

Brian

Thanks for that, that has eased my mind now. i was kinda worrying if i was doing anything wrong, but now that you've approved im happy.

one more thing, how much should i be feeding these two? they are taking around a dozen small cat food biscuits (go-cat) a day, between the two of them, aswell as a bit of fruit/veg aswell. is this too much? not enough?

get them the turtle food as soon as possible. i usually feed about as much as they will eat. what i would do is feed a little bit at a time. if they eat it all pretty quickly give them a little more. keep doing this until they stop eating. mine will usually leave extra food floating if i give them too much which tells me they will not over eat. feeding 2-3 times a day is better than just once a day. net out any extra food or else you will be cleaning the tank much more often. you should be able to feed some fruits and vegtables. mainly dark lettuce like kale. you would have to check a book or a care sheet to see what all you should or should not feed them. they may not like vegetables until they are older. get that turtle food. good luck.

Brian