Pet turtles

[Marsha Cassada]

Does anyone have a pet turtle? We found a teeny one in the yard. He is a red eared slider. We found him in May when he was about the size of a half dollar. I have him in a goldfish bowl. He won't eat turtle food, but takes flies from my hand and eats earthworms like spaghetti. Also give him tiny snails from my water garden. He will eat lettuce, and I think he ate a piece of a grape.

I'm wondering how often he needs to eat. Are they opportunist eaters? Can they go a few days without eating?

I'm thinking of ordering meal worms for this winter when I don't have flies, snails and worms.

Why won't he eat the turtle food?

He is so cute and feisty!

 

[candycar]

I don't know if they "need" to eat every day, but I would feed it anyway. Maybe he doesn't see the turtle food as food. Keep trying it, maybe he'll catch on.

We had a terrapin that came to our yard almost everyday to get his grape or banana. I miss him since we moved. We had those little sliders as pets when I was a kid. We fed them everyday. They always died after a couple of months.

Why don't you put him in your water garden? I bet he'd love it there.

 

[Jill]

Since he is still a little baby, he probably should eat multiple times a day is my guess. I know that with baby fish, that is best while as adults, once or less a day can be fine. The things you are offering sound like they should be good for him.

 

[Marsha Cassada]

I've tried and tried with the turtle food. It just lays in there and turns to mush. It has all those vitamins and minerals, but I guess he's holding out for the fresh stuff. I'll keep trying it, though.

I've tried offering him wienie by hand. He looks at it, ponders, then rejects. Same with a bit of dried beef. It is so entertaining to watch him.

I've put him in the water garden and he immediately swims to the edge and struggles to escape. He'd last about 10 minutes in the jungle. 95% of baby turtles don't make it. If my chickens had seen him before we did, he would not be one of the 5%.

He likes lettuce but won't eat chard or kale.

 

[Jill]

Yeah, I don't think he'd be likely to make it on his own at that size. As a kid, we fed baby and full size box turtles canned dog food, raw hamburger, earth worms, lettuce, and strawberries. I don't know which, if any, of this were good for them, but they seemed to like all of it. Probably as a baby, he needs more protein than veggies (?). Maybe cooked eggs? Wish you lived closer because I'd give you a spare aquarium he'd take awhile to grow into and it's just sitting in our storage shed. Good luck with him. I know his odds of survival went up when you took him in with the odds of baby turtles on their own.

 

[shorthorsemom]

tons of information on internet on how to care for the red eared slider turtle and food suggestions are available too. Says don't feed shrimp for commercial food. Gives lots of suggestions for house food to feed turtle. Says they can live up to 70 years. wow.

 

[djskid]

I wrote a big long reply but then my computer froze so......here is the condensed version!

I have had red eared sliders for about 20 years! Mine started out the same size as your little guy and now my hand won't reach from one side of their shell to the other! They grow based on the amount of water they are provided (I'm a softy and couldn't stand them not having lots of water!). My pet store carries two types of turtle food-a pellet/stick type and then dried river shrimp. My guys only like the pellet ones and they won't eat anything other than that-I've tried them with lettuce and ground beef etc.. but they don't like it. I feed mine once a day. You are suppose to feed them only what they will eat in a 10 minute period. They need a source of heat-I have a UV light as well as a heater. As he gets bigger, you will likely want a filteration system as they tend to get dirty really fast and it is not a pretty smell!! The ones I had before the two I have now laid eggs, but would have them broken before I could get them...so no babies! Apparently the turtle farms have to inject the turtles with hormones to get them to lay and even then it doesn't work that well....my pet store couldn't believe it when I brought in some turtle eggs for them to see! They are so much more interactive than fish, IMO! My guys start banging on the glass when they hear my voice and will track my finger!

Congratulations and good luck with your new baby!!!

 

[Marsha Cassada]

I wrote a big long reply but then my computer froze so......here is the condensed version!

I have had red eared sliders for about 20 years! Mine started out the same size as your little guy and now my hand won't reach from one side of their shell to the other! They grow based on the amount of water they are provided (I'm a softy and couldn't stand them not having lots of water!). My pet store carries two types of turtle food-a pellet/stick type and then dried river shrimp. My guys only like the pellet ones and they won't eat anything other than that-I've tried them with lettuce and ground beef etc.. but they don't like it. I feed mine once a day. You are suppose to feed them only what they will eat in a 10 minute period. They need a source of heat-I have a UV light as well as a heater. As he gets bigger, you will likely want a filteration system as they tend to get dirty really fast and it is not a pretty smell!! The ones I had before the two I have now laid eggs, but would have them broken before I could get them...so no babies! Apparently the turtle farms have to inject the turtles with hormones to get them to lay and even then it doesn't work that well....my pet store couldn't believe it when I brought in some turtle eggs for them to see! They are so much more interactive than fish, IMO! My guys start banging on the glass when they hear my voice and will track my finger!

Congratulations and good luck with your new baby!!!

Wow! Very cool!

I have the pellet/stick type. He refused it again today, but he pondered on it before shoving it aside. Hopefully he will eventually decide it's a food source. I was making meatloaf tonight and offered him a piece of hamburger with egg and tomato sauce on it. He studied it and I sort of pressed it against his nose. He sampled it, then gobbled it up. That's easier than digging for worms. I don't know how many flies he would eat in 10 minutes, but I don't think I could keep up with him!

I change his water about every 3-4 days.

I heard that if their water isn't kept clean they will die. When I think of them burying themselves in pond mud I find that hard to believe.

Thanks for sharing your turtle experience.

 

[Marsha Cassada]

I got some dried shrimp from a pet shop and he will eat that. The pet shop will not take turtles from the wild, so I either have to keep him or turn him loose.

He crunched up 5 little snails, a rolypoly, and 3 earthworms today. When I clean the bowl, I give him snails from my water garden and dig for a few worms. He still won't eat the turtle food, but if he'll eat the shrimp we can keep going for a while.

I don't think he's grown any since May.

 

[Ryan Johnson]

Very cute Marsha. When I first brought the property I am at now back in 2007 a friend found one on the road and put it into the lake at home. It swum off and hasn't been since, I hope its ok

 

[Ryan Johnson]

What do you think you will do with him ?

 

[Marsha Cassada]

One thing I WON'T do is release him in our farm ponds. Turtles are a big nuisance if you want to keep fish. If I release him, I will take him to a nearby creek. I'm thinking if I release him, I need to do it before winter so he'll have a chance to find a spot for hibernating.

 

[Jill]

I think it might be too late already for him to get ready enough to hibernate if its similar to what I read a long time ago about box turtles. I had read they spend half the summer eating as much as they can so they can survive winter hibernation as adult turtles, and you know the survival / viability rate for baby turtles. I opw you can keep him thru the winter. Easy for me to say, I know! He's cute for sure. H brought home a tiny box turtle baby once and we let him go but really debated with the fall looming. I do not rember the month it was now and we kept him for only a day or so, but we maybe would have helped him if we had kept him inside and let him go in spring. Will never know... Good luck.

 

[Marsha Cassada]

Well, he's been eating all summer for sure.

I don't know how many baby turtles hatch at a time. We had to buy a turtle trap for our pond last year as there were way too many. We ended up catching nearly 60. Some the size of saucers and some the size of dinner plates. We took them to the creek a few miles away to release. Then our pond went dry after that, so not sure what they would have done anyway. I guess they were better off being trapped and released somewhere else. They were all red eared and plain green ones, no snappers.

Have no idea where this little guy hatched/came from and ended up on our driveway.

Now that I have found something for him to eat (the dried shrimp) it won't be so hard keeping him until spring. I've sort of been keeping my eye out for a different container than the goldfish bowl, something rectangular maybe. Give him a little more room. But the bowl is easy to clean.

I heard that the design of a turtle's shell is as distinctive as a finger print; no two are alike.

 

[Jill]

if we lived close enough, I'd gladly give you one of our spare aquarium for him. But that could be kind of a pain in the butt to clean since they're glass.

They make 5 gallon plastic aquariums, or critter habitats, that I think are fairly inexpensive especially if you can find them at Walmart. If you wanted to go, I bet you could use some kind of a Rubbermaid food or clothing sort of storage container to house him.

 

[Jill]

PS when I was a kid, we would catch box turtles and keep them all summer long. One of the first summers we did that, my dad painted my sister's initials on one side and my initials on the other side of the turtle we had. We caught him and each summer thereafter we found him again until we moved and took him to a more woody place to let him go before we moved thinking no one else would find him again. I'm sure there are a ton of reasons not to paint box turtles, but we didn't think of those things then. My best friend next door had one, too, and he named his Speedy Bullet Baily (last name), but it was years before we realise that was funny or why our parents laughed about it. He was fast for a turtle ☺. And one girl named hers PJ for Puddle Jumper

 

[Jill]

How's he doing?

 

[Marsha Cassada]

He's doing fine. I'm having trouble getting him to eat, though. Maybe he isn't warm enough? Still a couple of snails, some dried shrimp, a meal worm, and a fly in his bowl when I cleaned it last. I dug him a nice earthworm recently and I think it is gone, so maybe he ate it. I guess if he gets hungry he will eat. I don't have a heat light for him, but set him in the window sill when the sun is out.

He is feisty and active.

 

[Marsha Cassada]

Mr Turtle is growing, I think! I've been able to find a few worms so far this winter in my flower beds. The Extension office has a worm farm and the county agent said I could come and get some. He will eat the dried shrimp, but he's very picky. The only lettuce he will eat is iceburg. Worms are his absolute favorite.

 

[Marsha Cassada]

Turtle is going great. We measured him with calipers recently and he was 1.6. Wish we had measured him with calipers last spring to see how he's grown.

Today there was was a very large red eared slider on the porch. All this rain has them on the move. He probably measures about 10-12 inches across. I laid my little turtle on top for fun. Wouldn't want to leave them together, as mine would be lunch.

I am amazed at how many folks have owned a turtle for many years.