Reptile & Amphibian Forums

a friend gave me a slider turtle she bought a few weeks ago and she had no idea how to care for him, he was in a kritter keeper...
when she called me about taking him i set up a 55 gallon tank for him, with a dry area for basking, hiding spots, and bought a rubbermade container for him to eat in to prevent the filter from clogging up(fluval 303), also uvb lighting..
my question is what should the ph of the water be?

as long as the ph isnt an extreme it is fine. they are nowhere close to as sensitive as fish about that stuff. i dont feed separately because moving them around a lot can cause stress which will keep them from eating. i use whispers because they are much better at filtering stuff like turtle and cichlids. they eat the food, may spill a little but its not too bad, but they will still poop in the main tank which is what the filter is really for. overfeeding is what leads to food clogging filters, not feeding in the main tank in general. feed appropriate amounts of food and the food shouldnt clog the filter.

ok, tomorrow ill go and pick up a better filter. and i see what you mean about feeding in the main tank.
i will say this little turtle seems content now, when he was at the girls house he was as i stated in a kritter keeper, with no heat and really no way to get out of the water he had a rock to climb on but he had to hold it for dear life to be able to get out of the water. when she asked me last week about taking the turtle i agreed, and came home from work and set the tank up it ran for 4 days, so i would be sure to have decent temps and the basking light was not to hot, and the filter was running properly. the way i made the basking area was a flower pot filled with rocks, and then large flat rocks on top, and a few pieces of live plants, and put the hide there, i also have a piece of floating cork bark, and a piece of driftwood going to the basking area, i put him in the tank this afternoon when i got home with him, he swam from one end to the other, and went and got on the basking area. i looked him over to make sure he didnt have any soft spots and found none, she bought the turtle at a garage sale..... the people had a pond with several turtles in it and they bred i guess this little guy is about an inch.
she came by my house to see how the turtle was doing and said that i put him in to big of an enclosure.
kind of ironic, a friend was going to throw the tank out because the brace in the middle of the top broke, i asked for it, i said i might could use it......i was going to put my ball python in it, be he got a new enclosure from "santa".
i have 4 more tanks in my storage building, i told my aunt they were waiting for occupants..... LOL

i dont believe there is such a thing as too big of an enclosure. how deep do you have the water? there are whisper filters that suction cup to the inside of the tank since you probably have the water low. turtle docks are good. i have used them and are very happy with them. so if you are looking for a better basking area, or just another basking area, they are a good choice. fake plants that are just under the surface provide a good resting spot in the deeper parts of the tank. what are you feeding. i suggest a variety of pellets. i dont like to use live food because of the risk of introduction of disease and parasites. many people prefer different foods, so variety is the only way to ensure a complete diet. reptomin is okay(the lowest quality in my opinion) and shouldnt be more than half of their diet. my personal favorite is hagen nutrifin max turtle gammarus pellets, but i still vary it with 3 other foods, alternating from one meal to the next to keep them guessing.

i have about 6 inches of water, since the turtle was small i figured that might be ok for him for right now til i can better set the tank up..... this all happened kind of fast... and i was looking at the turtle dock and the hide log they make.... im assuming i can put more than one area in the enclosure...? i eventually want to fill it half full of water..... at least....
for the food so far i have put in romaine lettuce for him to nibble at, at his last home he was being fed pretty bird aquatic turtle food, and hikari turtle sticks; she gave me those, i havent seen him eat yet, i think he is a little stressed?? but i also bought zoo meds hatchling turtle food, monster aquatic turtle food, i wasnt sure about what insects he could have so i bought a can of crickets....i know it seems like i bought alot of food that is probably all about the same but i have learned from my fish keeping, varity is important, so i figured i should maybe try several foods to see which ones he will eat. as far as his previous home she was told to feed him the pellets, cooked chicken, canned cat and dog food....she said he would eat any of the canned foods nor the cooked chicken....she did say she gave him a little canned iguana food and he ate a bit of it.....
i also have small ocean plankton, i was wonder if he could have that as a treat?

is the ocean plankton frozen? all those pellets are good to use. just switch which one you use from meal to meal. you can try any of those freeze-dried bugs, but the pellets should be sufficient. he probably wont like veggies, at least not while he is so small. 6in of water if good, you may or may not want a second basking area if it doesnt have full spectrum lighting, you wouldnt want him to hang out on that one and not get the proper light. remember that those UV fluorescent bulbs need to be within 12 inches of his basking area to have any effect.

the ocean plankton is freeze dried.

i havent used ocean based food items with freshwater animals, the nutrition is different and may not be that beneficial to your turtle. the pellets will be fine.

my babies LOVE freeze dried krill and freeze dried freshwater shrimp.. they sell the shrimp as a turtle treat by tetrafauna called "reptotreat gammarus".. when my little yellowbelly was sick that was the only thing i could coax him to eat until he got his appetite back..
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Even though the turtle might not eat the veggies, they should still be offered. Veggies need to be a part of their diet.
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