Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Im new to turtle, i have quite a few frogs(19) a few lizards, and a slobbering bulldog, but over a vacation to flordia i became the new mom to a 1 week old painted turtle, a gray map turtle( so i was told) is there such a thing? and two ( suppost to be male and female ) spiny soft shells. One or two of them will be going to my sister but i would like to keep and breed if possible the soft shells. any way can some please help with what kind of se up my new pets need? I have heard of people keeping them in baby pools is this possible? just wondering. thanks in advance

My friend, there is so much to tell you. Far more than there is space to write, in fact. If I were you, I'd go the library, pet stores, and book stores and buy all of the turtle keeping books that I could find. I's stick to year 2000 and higher versions. Some are better than others, but you need a base of knowledge now, so read as much as you can.
This website has many species-specific care sheets for you, so look around. Your painted turtle, map turtle, and softshelled turtles may come from different habitats, depending on the exacty (sub)species that you have. Therefore, their care requirements may be quite different. Look for as much specific information as possible. There is a great website for turtle identification, which usually contains pictures of hatchlings and juveniles. It is www.chelonia.org. Go to species gallery, by genus, and look at the Chrysemys, Graptemys, and Trionyx(or Apalone) genera. Good luck. In the meantime...here's my two cents; clean, dechlorinated water, a variety of live food items, UVA and UVB lighting, smooth stones for basking, water relatively shallow, did I mention clean water, and lastly read your books BEFORE doing what the people at pet stores say. Unfortunately, many just don't know much about turtles.

I have spent the past 48 hours looking, reading, looking and more reading. Every post on the turtle forums, every care sheet i can find. I thought i had my hands full before with my frogs and lizards boy o boy was i wrong. I often wonder why i didnt pick a different hobby like knitting

I don't have time to answer all your concerns, but kiddie wading pools were a staple of a huge basement turtle collection some years ago. They are not beautiful, but, with an appropriate basking area (made from stair tread and vegetable storage containers) they are fine for turtles. Get the deeper models, if you can and don't be beguiled by elitists that insist that you don't deserve to live unless you totally recreate the natural environment.