baby red eared slider

[m1ste2tea]

I somehow ended up with this "adopted" baby RES a few weeks ago, thought I'd share what has happened so far.

a month ago my neighbor tells me that she found a baby painted turtle nowhere near water so she decided to rescue it and bring it home, but didnt have any kind of habitat set up, so she gave it to me to hold on to for a while knowing that I have experience and the tanks for turtles.

Stupid I was to accept this offer and stupid of me to put the tiny, 2 inch turtle in with my 6 inch RES and my pacu. The RES didnt get it, but the pacu did, bit off two of its legs. Needless to say it died the next night and I felt like crap for killing my neighbor's turtle (which was supposed to be a gift for her 6yo son) next week I ended up taking a trip to myrtle beach and I saw an advertisement for live baby turtles in the next town over. In an effort to redeem myself I purchaced/adopted two of these baby RES, one for my neighbor and one for myself(how could I resist?)

After setting it up in a small tank at home and feeding them, I discovered that at least one of them had some parasite worms that crawled out of the feces. I seperated them stated feeding them medicated food. The new turtle that was promised to the neighbor was not doing well, not being active like the other, and eventually croaked in a few days.

so now I have this one precious baby RES that im not giving to my neighbor(her kid probably would kill it).

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he's active, no signs of parasites in the feces and the water, but we'll what happens later.

 

[coura]

Tell your neighbor to get a turtle book for its kid, better then letting the litle guy perish. Baby turtles, specialy this young as you already figured out can be very tricky and sensitive. This reinforces my fellings that one way or another turtles should only be allowed to be sold with one year old at least. What are you feeding him?

 

[kdrun76]

You were able to buy them at that size?!?! It is against federal law to buy/sell any turtles that are less than 4" long at the carapace.

 

[m1ste2tea]

You were able to buy them at that size?!?! It is against federal law to buy/sell any turtles that are less than 4" long at the carapace.

indeed it is... the establishment did not have a price for them, you had to buy a little plastic habitat, and then "adopt" a turtle for it. its a loophole around the system, and even so it does not work everywhere. My fiancée has contacted the grand strand humane society to file a complaint against that establishment.

personally I think that it should be legal to sell baby turtles, just not THIS small when their shells are still soft, when they are still so vulnerable to just about any threat.

Furthermore I think people like my neighbor are the reason why its illegal to sell turtles under 4", people that will give the turtle as a "cute pet" for a child that will mistreat it, get salmonella poisoning and kill it most likely.

That being said I greatly enjoy keeping the turles as pets, but yes, they have proven to be difficult. The first one I bought, was 4" from a LFS and they mistakenly sold it while it was sick with some "replilian cold" illness. My second turtle is the 5"er and hes got a "lucky right paw" which is missing the claws.

What are you feeding him?

This new baby is eating special aquatic turtle pellets and grocery store fish fillet pieces. I put in half a dozen feeder guppies in with him but he cant catch them and looks like he's done trying. I also have calcium powder that I sprinkle onto the fish fillet once a week. That being said this little guy eats a lot of food for his size.

 

[m1ste2tea]

here's another crappy video of the tutle out of water, basking

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[DustyBZoo]

I love the videos!