All Turtles Message Board

raczoliver

Hi everyone!

I got two turtles as a gift today. I was totally freaked out for a couple of hours because I have no idea about turtles, but as a lover of all animals, I want to be a good "master". After doing some research on the net and bumping into this site and some others like tortoisetrust.org I feel like I'll handle it (them) somehow.

With a couple of minutes of searching on the net, I finally identified my turtles as red ear sliders. I also got to know they were sold illegally (well, I don't know if that applies for the whole world or just the USA), as they are 3 inches long at most, one being very slightly larger than the other. I have no idea about their sex. Is it maybe possible to tell according to the patterns on their belly, or something like that?

Even though I am far from having everything to make them feel comfortable, now I more or less know what they need, and I'll make sure they have a nice environment within the next couple of days. I still have a few questions though:
According to their size, how old can my turtles be? I read this species grew very slowly. Also, I quickly bought a water heater and I set it to 28 degrees. Their "pool" seems to be around that temperature, but directly around the heater it is much warmer. I notice they like hanging around right next to it, where the temperature must be well above 30C (86F). Is that a problem?

Sorry for the long post and thanks for the help. I'm sure I'll have more questions in the near future and I hope I can count on some friendly people here.

Oliver

dixieee · Posted: Fri Nov 18, 2005 4:24 am Post subject:

welcome to the board Smile

sorry for the late reply but i just saw that post

anyways, congrats on ur new babies Very Happy

RES's are beginner turtles so there's nothing much to worry about. first of all, ur temps should be a bit higher. i don't know about the weather in china. the area around the heater has the best temp. that's why they like it there

for the 4-inch law, i don't know but almost nobody applies it cz they're still ok to be sold for academic and scientific reasons

and for their sex, maybe u can tell by now. look at their front claws and tail. long nails + long tail= male. short nails + short stubby tail= female

so what are their names? and are they eating?

good luck and if u need anything, we'll be glad to help Smile

_________________
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

TallysMom · Level 2 Joined: 25 Jul 2005 Posts: 60

At that size, I think they're still under a year old. They actually grow pretty fast if kept properly.

I adopted a RES on August 21 that was 2-5/8ths inches long. A week or so ago, she was 3-1/4 inches long -- that's 5/8ths of an inch in less than three months. Doesn't sound like a lot, but it is: she has actually grown almost 25% longer since I got her (I am thinking it is a she, because of the very aggressive personality).

raczoliver · Posted: Sat Nov 19, 2005 10:19 pm Post subject:

Thanks for the replies. I named them Arnold and Betty, though I'm still not sure of their sex. Arnold (the slightly bigger one) is an eating machine, and I am thinking of separating them for the time of feeding, because he seems to grab everything away from Betty. Betty is much slower, and by the time she (?) gets to the food it gets eaten by the other one, so she always just grabs a couple of pieces. She also doesn't seem to be too interested in food, but I guess there's not much to worry about yet. She still eats a little.

I once also caught Arnold trying to bite Betty's head, and generally, I think Betty is being a little oppressed.

I am a little worried because the general idea in China is that animals are kept for the fun of people, and there are no real professional pet stores that have what turtles need for a healthy diet. I haven't been able to buy a proper UVB light source yet. But I'm going to Hungary for two weeks in December (my girlfriend is staying with the turtles) and I hope I am going to be able to buy the things I need there like lighting equipment, calcium and vitamin supplements etc.

I'll raise the temperature of the water and see how they like it. I was just scared I would cook them. It is around 75F in the room here, and I am not thinking of hybernating them, at least not in the first year for sure.

dixieee · Posted: Sun Nov 20, 2005 9:18 am Post subject:

the room temps need to be higher for them. btw, u can get the stuff u need from the Internet if u trust it Smile

oh i think u mixed them up, girls are usually the "naughty" ones so.. Laughing

have a nice trip and good luck with them. keep us posted Smile

_________________
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