Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have not had luck in the past raising spotted turtles. I have kept them in aquariums with a ramp. I have been told not to use tap water, but to use rain water. Any comments? I am also trying to understand the best habitat to prepare for them...what has been successful?

It would depend on the size of the turtle. Hatchlings due very well in tanks or plastic shoe boxes with one end raised. One end would be very shallow the other deeper. I keep the water for all of my spotties deep enough for them to touch the bottom and just get their heads out of the water. Also with all sizes of spotteds I give them plenty of hiding spaces and basking sites. The adults have about 30% of their enclosure as land. Most problems are with wild caught spotted turtles. I am sure it is illegal in every state that they are native to but that is no deterent to collectors. I hope this helps,
Tom

Tom,

thanks for the feedback. It is safe to assume you are using water heater, filters, etc.? What does "land" consist of? Sand?

There are still a few states that allow possession with a permit. The permits are relatively easy to obtain. I kept wild caught turtles in outdoor pens when I was a kid. I had buried cattle stock tanks filled with a small amount of mud, topped with water, and planted with plants from the bog behind my neighborhood where I found the turtles. I would do monthly water changes with well water. I kept those turtle for a few years, then let them go where I caught them.

Now, I have raised captive bred babies. I keep them in plastic shoeboxes with about two inches of dechlorinated/aged tapwater. I do not filter the water, as they seem to not like movement (my opinion). I change it as needed. I provide lots of hidey spots, as they start out very shy. I feed only live prey, as they won't really take commercial stuff for me. I offer greens and live plants to nibble on (they hardly ever do), UVA/UVB lighting, and use pieces of terra cotta pots for a land area.

When they approach adult size, I place them in an outdoor pond. It's one of those preformed hard plastic jobs. It has a layer of sand with some organic debris on the bottom, and is full of plants, and a few large pieces of driftwood. They can crawl out onto a small land area of sand and topsoil.

I don't heat my indoor tanks, and they never go above 75 degrees F. If they do heat up, my turtles frantically try to get out. Also, if it's above 80 outside, I don't see my outdoor turtles. They bury in the mud around the base of the plants. They seem to like it "cool".

What kinds of problems have you had? Do they not eat, constantly try to escape, act sickly, die? This might help us help you help your turtles.

Much like ken I don't use filters for the same reason. I don't use heaters either just a few good basking sites. I also keep the males by themselves except for about three or four days every few weeks in the spring and summer. Two weeks after a female lays I place her back in the males cage for a few hours at a time. This keeps my males hungry for love and my females lay 2-4 clutches a year. I never hibernate them just shorten the photo period to about 4 hours of light. I start in Nov and end in Dec. Six weeks with no food and A few hours of light seem to do the trick. The land area is about 4 inches of top soil with a half inch of sand on top of it. This helps find the eggs. Just look for the top soil where she dug up the sand. Hope this helps,
Tom

I know this is off topic, but...up to 4 clutches per year!!! Good lordy! That's no joke, maybe I need to start keeping my turtles indoors. Mine are relegated to the seasonal changes, and only lay one clutch in late May. I wish I hard larger indoor resources. Kudos, my friend.

I have one female that has laid 4 clutches a year for the last six years. They average from 2 - 5 eggs. My other females lay 2-4 clutches with 2 or three eggs. I feed them rosies and trout chow and keep the temp. around 83 degrees for most of the year so they dont want to estavate. Three years ago I hatched a spotted that was all white! I swear on my life. It lived for about three hours but its normal female clutch mate is alive and well. She will be bred back to her father next year to see if any more hatch white. I hope!!!!!!!
Tom

To my knowledge, that would be a first. I inadvertently hatched an all white Eastern Painted turtle a few years ago. Actually, it pipped, but never emerged from the egg. I removed the eggs from a road killed female. Since the trait seemed to prove fatal, I just released the siblings at the pond nearest to where I found the female. It's too upsetting to me to deal with the mortality of some of these genetic traits.

(Aside) I used to work at a vet, and some lady would bring in albino aussie shepherd puppies. She was a breeder, and was trying to produce the first ever albino aussie that wasn't blind and deaf. She'd wait until they were old enough to tell...they would ALWAYS be blind and deaf! We'd have to euthanize the whole lot. Finally, we told that nutcase to take a hike. We'd all be near tears when she'd bring the litters in. I truly hope that you have better luck...it seems as if herps can deal with albinism much better than mammals.

I have to agree that is sucks when they die. I just had a spotted pip , stick its head out and then die. I am not sure why it died but I just tell myself thats why they have so many eggs.
Tom

Thanks for the response!

In hindsight, I believe that I did two things wrong before - the water was too deep and I used tap water. I have just ordered a Waterland Tub. Based on your response, I should make the land area out of sand and organic material. Using your suggestion, I ordered the drain for the tub and I will just swap out the water as opposed to a filter system. Any recomendations on how often to change the water?

I have always just fed my turtels reptomin, with feeders and worms thrown in once in a while. What food do you find your spotted turtles eat?

I feed my soptties Aqua max trout pellets 3 times a week, rosies once a week and night crawlers once a week. The amount of food depends on the size of the turtle and time of year. I feed my adults more in the spring and summer but not at all in nov. and half of dec. I feed my hatchlings almost every day and only reptile ten. When they are about a year old I introduce the rosies and worms. I change my water at least once a week but some twice a week. I do use tap water and never had a problem. Are the spotteds that you are getting wild caught? They are used to water that is VERY acidic and would have trouble with the change. If so and they get the white skin fungus place a few tea bags in the water. Every few weeks add one less tea bag untill you arent using any. This should help,
Tom
P.S.
HOUSE MALES BY THEMSELVES!!
They will stress the girls and cause them health problems.

I'm really shocked that you are able to get your young spots to eat pellets. Mine will ONLY eat live prey until they are a year or two old. I feed them earthworms, newly shed giant mealworms, small superworms, phoenix worms, waxworms, and (frog lovers cover your eyes) tadpoles. Is there a trick that you use, or do your turtles just take the commercial stuff?

When the hatch I put them in about a quater inch of water with lost of basking and hiding places. I offer a few sticks at a time and nothing else. When the are about a week old they start eating the food sticks.
Tom

Hi, Ken and Tom.

You have provided a lot of great advise, so I have some more elemtary questions for you:

1. When the hatchlings are born, do you leave any adults with them, or do you need to keep them separate?

2. I am being advised to keep the male away from the female...and that you can expect the female to lay several times during the year. How do you cycle the male in and out with the female?

3. I am also assuming that you cannot leave a Watertub outside without some kind of protective cover to keep the predators out. Am I missing anything here? One of my options is to keep the tubs underneath my second story deck, next to the house. I still worry that a racoon will find his way to the tub.

Thanks for the continuing great advise.

1. When the hatchlings are born, do you leave any adults with them, or do you need to keep them separate?

I always keep babies of every species away from adults...just in case. Whether purposely or accidentally, mixing the two could be disastrous.

2. I am being advised to keep the male away from the female...and that you can expect the female to lay several times during the year. How do you cycle the male in and out with the female?

Turtles can store sperm from matings and produce viable young for many clutches...having said that, I don't know about research regarding this in spotteds specifically. So, why not put them together every couple of weeks in the spring and early summer? If anything, it'll keep the male happy. You should keep them separate because the male is relentless, and may try to mate constantly with the female. This could make for a very unhealthy and unhappy female. Also, multiple clutches will depend on how much and the quality of what you feed the female, whether they're brumated (hibernated), their health, and age. There's just no predicting it. Tom seems to have a lot of experience and success with breeding spotteds, so maybe he'll chime back in.

3. I am also assuming that you cannot leave a Watertub outside without some kind of protective cover to keep the predators out. Am I missing anything here? One of my options is to keep the tubs underneath my second story deck, next to the house. I still worry that a racoon will find his way to the tub.

This can be really complicated to answer, and it really depends on your situation specifically. Here's a list;
- If you live in a hot climate, you need to make sure that the tubs don't get too hot. Most of these tubs are black, and will absorb heat from the sun. Spotteds like it pretty cool, and too much heat can literally kill them.
- Spotteds need some sunlight for basking, but not too much sunlight(for the reason above). If you live in Pennsylvania, they may be able to handle 6 hours of direct sunlight. If you live in South Carolina, they may be able to tolerate only 2 hours of direct sunlight in the am...it all depends.
- I keep all of my turtles of various species outside as soon as possible. I don't keep any hatchlings out, as they are extremely vulnerable. Even something as small as a shrew can devouor a hatchling spotted turtle. Even ants! As for adults, I live in a rural part of the Southeast with many racoons, opossum, hawks, owls, crow, and the rare coyote. When the turtles are about 4 inches and have hardened shells, I'll put them outside. I have rigged up an electric fence that guards the perimeters of my pens. It is simply a cheap 2 mile unit with several hundred feet of thin metal wire. It's suspended several inches above the pen walls. It keeps out most of the above mentioned undesireables. Also, I have a staffie-bull terrier who guards my turtles. I've never had a predator problem, but I know some people who've had to cover their pens with hardware cloth on sturdy frames. It's really a judgement call...and you don't want to learn the hard way. I'm sorry for the novel, but you have some detailed questions. I hope other people chime in...I'm sure that I'm leaving out a lot. I've just been doing this so long, it comes as second nature.

P.s. If I were you, and had the space, I'd keep the waterland tubs indoors with full spectrum UVA/UVB lighting. Spottes are one of the few species that seem to have very little trouble being kept indoors.

Thanks, Ken.

I need to rethink what I am going to do. I bought one Waterland tub and now realize I need separate quarters for males, females, and hatchlings...so I need to rethink how I am going to do this. Based on earlier postings, sounds like I can keep the hatchlings in a plastic shoebox container for the first year or so. Just need to figure out if I need another waterland tub for the male [I am married, so need to negotiate around my wife].

I will take your advice and keep the waterlandtub inside. I live in the Southeast as well and we have plenty of creatures that could cause trouble for the turtles. Hawks, snakes, and racoons are all frequent visitors.

Right now I am staring at the waterlandtub trying to get up enough nerve to drill a hole and install the bulkhead that I bought. There were no instructions...and I am paralyzed with fear that this thing is going to leak.

A few more things.

Any plants that I should plant on the land side of the waterlandtub that a spotted will actually enjoy and eat? Again, I am hesitant to plant just anything...just in case it is posionous to a spotted.

I understand the comment about putting the male and female together every few weeks. By "together" do you mean a few hours or a few days?

To avoid drilling a hole, are you aware of any easy techniques to getting water out of the waterlandtub? I am not near any faucets so I was going to drill the hole, install the bulkhead and drain it into a bucket as needed. Once upon a time I had a siphon for the turtletanks I had all over the house, but it required running water to operate.

I place the female in with the male three hours a day for about four days. I do this about every four weeks. Last year when I was cleaning my spotted enclosures I placed a male in a container that I thought was empty but there was a baby hiding under a piece of bark. When I took the male out I found a headless baby. I was p!@#ed at my self but I didn't notice it was still in there. Thats why I keep sizes and sexes seperate. My males are mean!!! They try to fight if the see each other when I am holding them in seperate hands!!

I have kept S.A. woods and box turtles in my yard for the last few summers in a 16'x4' pen. I do have the entire enclosure covered. One day last summer I looked in my yard are there were four feril cats sitting on the enclosure looking at the turtles. I sent my dog out and he chased them off. I would NEVER LEAVE A CAGE OUTSIDE UNCOVERED.

Drilling a waterland tub is a piece of cake. Buy a bulkhead and it will have a gasket. Trace the inside hole of the gasket on the tub with a marker. I used a rotery saw to cut the hole and it was a little bigger the first time. All I did was place the bulkhead in the hole with a gasket on each side and fill the space between them with silicone and let it dry over night. It has never leaked but with that being said, I think the best way to clean turtle tubs is with a shop vac. Hope this helps,
Tom

I think Tom covered most everything. A few other things you mentioned;
Spotted turtles won't generally eat out of water, so the plant you put in the land area will be more for aesthetics. Choose something non-toxic, or even fake. In the water, you can try putting anacharis. If there's a plant that they will eat, it is usually anacharis.
There's a company that makes some pretty neat little tools for cleaning aquariums. I think it's called Python something (really helpful, I know). The siphons come pretty large, and you can run them out a window, hook up to a garden hose, and you're good to go. Also, you can usually find cheap sump pumps on ebay. Just make sure they're new!!!! You never know where they've been.
I know you're set on a waterland tub. Those things are pretty large, and you could house a few females and some large juveniles. If you only have one male, you could house him in a smaller enclosure. Honestly, a 30 gallon tank or equivalent sweater box would suffice. As long as it has adequate lighting, you should be ok.
You may even want to wait on breeding until you can master having one setup.

I have to agree with Ken as well. For males I use cement mixing tubs that you can get at any hardware store. They work very well are are inexpensive. There is a company called Iris that makes a Holiday storage tote that is 5' x 18'' x 22'' that are great for adult/ sub adult spotties and also hatchlings. They only cost $20 but you can only get them at Christmas at WalMart. This year I am going to buy about 10 of them. As far as plants go I keep my spotteds indoors so I keep it simple. A few basking sites, hiding places, and lighting and that is it. I clean weekly with bleach so I use things that will rinse fully.
Tom

Ken and Tom,

Your advice has been great and much appreciated. My turtles arrived this morning and appear to be in good health. I assume it will take them some time to get comfortable in their new surroundings.

Now that they are in the tub I clearly see I need to add more hiding spaces.