Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My 11 yr. old son has two red-ears..."Leo and Little Leo" He LOVES them. He has had them for about 3 years. My dad bought them for him as a christmas gift. We have taken what I believe to be good care of them over the years changing the filter in the tank, changing water, cant tell you how many times I have scrubbed rocks in my bathtub, buying turtle snacks, even a trip to the vet for Big Leo's ear infection. I have to say that when I see them I feel so bad for them swimming in 8 in. of water, and basking on that same turtle sized rock under the lamp every day. I wonder, do they ever wonder what life is like outside the ol' rectangle tank?? Do they dream of digging in the mud?? Well, I have done some searching on the net about releasing turtles, and most of what I read makes me out to be the "irresponsible pet-owner that wants to get rid of unwanted turtle" that is NOT how I feel about it. I just want a better life for those two Leo's....I want them to be happier.

SO, my question is..My Aunt and Uncle have a private pond where they live. There is some sort of filtration system, and my aunt says their are tons of bull frogs there. Would that be an ideal place for my son's turtles? I dont think the turtles are too attached to pellets because my son feeds them live bugs, crickets etc. The turtles seem to have great instincts to catch their food. (In the tank) However, my son also feeds them pellets by hand, and they know him. When he comes around, they notice for sure. What should I do? What brought me to this is that Big Leo has started to seem upset or wanting to fight with Little Leo...I would love some thoughts or ideas from you. But, If anyone suggests adopting them out, we dont want to do that. I rather have them somewhere my son can "visit" and my aunt's place seems to be alright.

release into the wild can almost guarantee their death, as you have learned. private controlled fenced ponds are good for the turtle but not for almost anything else in the pond. redears are omnivores so everything is fair game, plants, snails, fish, frogs, crayfish, everything is on the menu for a redear. i released my 2 redears into my sisters pond. 90 gallon with a hardware cloth fence, not really cloth but metal mesh screen, and they are doing great. the hardware cloth fence is 24" tall but about 4" are buried to prevent a digging escape. if you are looking for something bigger and not wanting to deal with a bigger tank a pond built specifically for them is the best option. i would consider 90 gallons minimum and i would use a preformed pond because they will not be damaged by the turtles curiously biting at the folds that ususally form in a liner pond. if this is what you are interested in just post any questions.

How much does one of those pre-formed ponds cost? We would have plenty of room to do that. That was our first thought, but I thought a "real" pond would be even better. If it is very expensive, it may have to wait and be a Christmas gift. Or even tax season. If we did make a pond habitat for the turtles, what time of year should we do it in? Are there any great websites/stores you recommend? I am on such a budget with 4 kids, 5 cats, 1 dog, 2 turtles, and a husband in the pear tree. We can barely scrape up enough for turtle pellets when we need them. My son gives them live insects to conserve. However, we would be so excited to build a pond for them. I just LOVE that idea...but not sure we can afford it.

it really depends on how elaborate you want to be. it sounds like you would have to so pretty simple. took a trip over to lowe's or home depot, they ususally both have preformed ponds in stock for you to look at and price. the pond itself tends to be the same price as there are gallons. 90 gallon shouldnt be more than $120 or so, but im not sure, when i was looking recently i was looking at 160 gallon and 270 gallon. pumps are about $50, filter varies but there is a filter box that goes around the pump, its about the size of a shoebox. it costs $50 but this filter runs my neighbors 200 gallon pond fine, as long as their dog doesnt get in. the hardware cloth was about $10 for 25ft of 24" wide with 1/2" spacing. this worked really well. the posts we used we cut from a long(8') stake and cut down to 3 2' pieces, you will probably need more stakes because we also used an arbor to mount the fence to. tax season would probably be the best. you will hopefully have the money and they will be out long enough to be ready for the winter, if you want to keep them outside for the winter. where do you live? once a turtle has been in captivity for more than a few weeks, or if it was captive born, they should never be released into the wild. this is there best option. this was all really something i came up with on my own. it is cheaper than anything ive seen online. and it is very effective. make sure to have atleast 6" of fence go straight into the ground in order to prevent digging escape. post any other questions.

beware of cats.... you said you have 5 so, either a fence or make the pond edges higher then the water level with a basking spot in the middle, adding a little bit of duckweed also will allow your turtles to see and not be seen. Depending on where you live, winter time might be a little chilly if your turtles can't hibernate...

Thanks so much for your helpful information. By the way, I live in NC. We bought the turtles in Vermont. We recently moved back down south. This seems like a big project. I dont mind though for the betterment of the turtles lives and it will make my son happy. I still dont understand why a "real" pond that is already private and overrun by bull-frogs (my aunt wouldnt mind them being eaten) would be bad for them. They have natural instincts, even though they have been fed captive. Why would they "most likely die"? Would they drown because of the massive change in water depth? I do have a horrible thought of them swimming around in the pond (which is about 1 1/2 acres) and not being able to find the "basking rock" that they are accustommed to. Although, when we change their living quarters within the tank, they get used to the change..wouldnt they get used to a pond? I would think it would be paradise for them....but I dont mind building a mini-pond, it would be fun for us all as a family.

Your turtles aren't use to the types of bacteria that would be found in natural occuring ponds/lakes, their immune systems wouldn't be able to adapt quick enough, plus they don't understand predators, raccoons and whatnot. If you start your turtles in a new pond, they will be able to slowly adapt to what's in the water around them without an overload of foreign and potentially fatal bacteria and organisms in the water.

I'm sorry, but this information is patently untrue.

"Your turtles aren't use to the types of bacteria that would be found in natural occuring ponds/lakes, their immune systems wouldn't be able to adapt quick enough"

RES are capable of handling anything they'd be introduced to in a pond or lake. Escaped pets have colonized more coutries than I can think of. As far as not being able to deal with predators, I doubt it very much. Try keeping your turtles outside in a large pond and see how quickly they react to movements around them.

Thanks, I appreciate your responses. As for your point on preditors, I am understanding. Looks like their will be preditors anywhere.

Tank--shell rot, ear infections, and other dieseases they wouldnt get in the wild.
MINI-POND--cats, racoons,etc.
REAL POND--racoons, bigger mean turtles,etc.

Its hard to make a logical decision as for what is best for them. **Sigh**

You can easily "cover" your pond so that preditors have a much harder time getting in. Have you tried looking in the Cage and Habitat Forum or the Ponds and Water Gardens Forum. They could probably give you LOTS of good info. and some price cutting tips as well .
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Jenea

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Hey I too live in NC, another cheaper option you may want to consider is making a concrete pond rather than a preformed pond. The advantage of making the pond out of concrete is that you can make the pond whatever shape/depth you would like. The hardest part is digging the hole...but I'm sure your son can handle it...Im 16 and have made about 8 ponds by hand for myself and others. If you do decide to go with concrete be sure to make the concrete about 3" thick so it doesn't crack in the winter. For $35 worth of concrete and a little digging you can have a much larger and more adequate pond than that of a preformed. - Lance

Thanks Lance! I appreciate the advice, you have sold me on the concrete..if we do decide to build a pond (which we do have 2 little girls to worry about the danger to them if we had a pond in our yard) I will definately go that route with the concrete. Like you said, we could make it any shape or size and could get really creative with it..it would be so fun! Advice for you...enjoy your youth, but Not tOO muCH! I just turned 30, and still feel like I am 16...it sure does fly by fast..Thanks again, Angie

Releasing any turtles back into the wild is never a good idea for a host of different reasons, which have been explained here many times.
It is not however a death sentence for the turtle. Pet Red Eared Sliders have been released around the world and have happily colonized dozens of countries where they are non native causing all sorts of ecological havoc. It’s bad for all the other native wildlife they compete with, not necessarily bad for the turtle.

oh and i forgot, i have the 'Complete Guide To Water Gardens" book, part of the Creative Homeowner series available at Lowe's... awesome book, it gave me so many ideas and it's a very visual book. I'd recommend it to you for starting out on your pond, it has everything you need to know and it's very easily read. Best of luck to you, Leo, and...Leo.

hey, about the redears. assuming they r c.b., in my opinion a "wild" pond is a bad idea. please build a "controlled" enviro, such as preformed, or a larger tank. my reasoning is this; a c.b. animal has not been suseptable 2 germs,infections, etc. its immune system will not likely tolerate it. 2 many reasons 2 list. anyhow, good luck.

I'm certainly no turtle expert, but it's my understanding that it's a bad idea to release captive turtles, because you can introduce new diseases to the pond inhabitants that are already there. I think the backyard pond idea is a great one, I'm thinking of doing that myself.
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Do not release them into the wild. If that is your only option, find a good rescue group to give them too. You could build a pond for yourself if you have a yard. There are all different sizes of liners that you can purchase. You can also make a new aquarium from a large rubbermaid container.
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