All Turtles Message Board

yoshimirobot · Guest Joined: 23 Sep 2005 Posts: 1 Location: austin, tx

i recently discovered a rather large man-made pond in a nearby neighborhood and spotted a group of red-eared sliders living in the water...there are also several ducks and geese obviously brought for amusement...all the animals seemed malnourished so i decided to buy some turtle/duck food....as i was throwing the sticks into the water, several more turtles emerged from the murky, brown funk...as they got closer to the surface i noticed some fuzz....then when they were above water, i saw that these turtles were completely covered in algae...their shells not visible, only green fuzz, then their heads would pop out for the food, and their necks and parts of their faces were being taken over by algae! fortunately not all the turtles were covered with the fuzz, it mainly effected the larger ones...i wrote down the park number to try to get some maintenance on the pond...but i dont see them doing anything...the park & animals in general seem neglected, so i was thinking about catching the fuzzy turtles and cleaning them....is that wise? or even necessary? they seemed to be in a state of discomfort, but if they've survived this long, it must be okay....i need a turtle experts opinion....please help!

deesygirl · Moderator Joined: 12 Sep 2002 Posts: 1209

Algae covering on turtles is natural and nothing needs to be done.

Adult RES eat mostly vegtable matter so if this pond has an area of plant matter the turtles should be fine. Turtles as well as ducks are opportunistic feeders. The only way to really tell if a bird is malnurished is to check it's croup area. If the croup is sunk in it needs so food. As for turtles you check the limbs. If they are fat and the rolls of skin protrude from the leg openings in the shell, the turtle is over weight. If the leg looks very small and the skin is a flap hanging out then the turtle is malnurished.

dixieee · Posted: Fri Sep 23, 2005 10:28 am Post subject:

welcome to the board yoshimirobot Smile

i'm so glad there are still people who care like u Very Happy

so sorry for the turtles Sad

i'm not an expert but i know that u can clean their shells with a toothbrush. deesygirl knows more about wild turtles and said it's ok so.. Exclamation

_________________
Wed 10/27/2004 is the worst day..i lost my best friend Leo

so now i have a female RES, Green, and a cute stupid male YBS, Mint

5/4/2006 RIP Lemon, u were my first rescue and i'm so proud of u. will never 4get u

deesygirl · Moderator Joined: 12 Sep 2002 Posts: 1209

Here is an article about RES from the Texas wildlife and parks service.

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/huntwild/wild/species/slider/

Red-eared Slider (Trachemys scripta elegans)
Description
The red-eared slider is perhaps the best known and most recognizable of turtles. It is a medium sized turtle with a dark green oval shell, marked with yellow in younger turtles, green legs with thin yellow stripes and a green head with a red stripe behind the eye
Life History
Red-eared sliders are Texas's most common aquatic turtles. These turtles get their name from a broad red stripe behind their eye and their habit of sliding off rocks and logs when startled. Older turtles are often covered with a thick coat of algae. Some red-eared sliders live more than 30 years.

Sliders are cold-blooded and spend hours sunning themselves on rocks and logs. If there are not enough rocks or logs for all of them they will often stack themselves one on top of the other! They bury themselves in loose soil or mud during the winter to escape the cold. When population numbers get high, these turtles move across land to other bodies of water in search of food and space. They eat aquatic plants, small fish, and decaying material.

Female turtles lay their eggs in holes that they dig in the ground and leave. Young turtles are born having to take care of themselves. Baby red-eared sliders were once very popular as children's pets until it was discovered that some of them carried the disease, salmonella. It is now illegal to sell sliders less than 4 inches in diameter. Most wild animals make very poor pets and are best observed in their native habitat.

A turtle's shell is actually made up of its ribs joined together and covered with a thin layer of skin. Each of the ribs is made of jigsaw-like sections called scutes, which grow at the edges. This allows the turtle to increase in size without outgrowing its shell. Mature males have long toenails on their front feet that they use when courting females. The males swim backwards in front of females and fan water over their faces.

Sliders have poor hearing but are very sensitive to vibrations. This makes it hard to sneak up on them. Their name, slider, comes from the fact that they are quick to slide off of rocks, logs or the banks if danger threatens.

Habitat
Red-eared sliders are found in most permanent slow-moving water sources with mud bottoms in the eastern three quarters of the state.
Distribution
They range from Indiana to New Mexico down through Texas to the Gulf of Mexico. They are widely distributed throughout Texas except for the far western region.
Other
In many Native American creation stories, the land on which they lived was the back of a huge turtle floating in a vast sea. Turtles were considered sacred and never killed. The thirteen pieces on some turtle's shells are thought to represent the thirteen moons of the year.

dixieee · Posted: Fri Sep 23, 2005 3:21 pm Post subject:

deesygirl · Moderator Joined: 12 Sep 2002 Posts: 1209

You are welcome. People often mistake the algae covering for something else. It is just what happens when you spend 15 or 20 years in the water. LOL They are not hurting or in any danger.