Reptile & Amphibian Forums

my neighbor works for our township and a few people have found turtles crawling across teh road far from any ponds and the knew that i had 3 turtle ponds (without any turtles in) so he brought me 3 of them because they couldn't let the go in the local lake. they are about 3" long, my ponds are preformed one is 100 gal, 125 gall, and 200 gal. i have the 3 in the 125 gallon pond. since i assume the are wind or have hibernated before so i want them to do the same. what can i do to try to create as natural pond as i can. what should i put on the bottom so they can hibernate. i have had turtles for years but i never had them hibernate because they were captive born.

nathan

A difficult call: painteds are fairly hardy, but I'm not sure what you have in the bottom of your ponds and whether they will freeze to the bottom in winter (or where you live, for that mater). If they are not well-fed, they may not survive regardless. They are probably at least a year old (painteds often over-winter in their nest and emerge the following spring).