Help!!! Need turtle info...

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nospeed411

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Aug 13, 2009
96
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Central PA
Ok so the other day my wife sends me a picture of a baby turtle that kept crawling into the building where she works. I say" awww how cute now put it back" She then proceeds to tell me there is no where to put him due to the recent construction next door. They actually filled in a small wetland area to build a bank and he keeps crawling into the wash bay at the car dealership to get to water.....dilemma now arises.

She brings the little fellow home so we can figure out what the heck to do with him. I quickly rig up an old 4 gallon acrylic aquarium with some water from the 90 , a small piece of driftwood and a nice piece of slate. Used a cheapo heater I had lying around to keep it somewhat warm and wala...turtle tank. Upon further research we discover he is a common snapping turtle and we guess he is a late hatch and maybe only a few weeks old.

I only have around an inch of water in there for him due to his extremely tiny size. His egg yolk sac is completely gone so we are trying to figure out how and what to feed him.

Returning him to the wild is not at option till spring...we are already having some light frost and since he has no nest to return to for hibernation I am kinda stuck with him till spring. Then I can dump him in the community koi pond (long story). So if you guys have any experience with baby common snapping turtle please advise on what we can do for him food wise.

Thanks
 
You could probably feed him guppy fry or maybe reg guppies. He shud need a UVA/UVB light for basking. Thats all I know im not much of a turtle person
 
Masa06;4585840; said:
You could probably feed him guppy fry or maybe reg guppies. He shud need a UVA/UVB light for basking. Thats all I know im not much of a turtle person
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I'm 90% positive they don't need UV lighting as long as they have a proper diet.
 
You still have time to let it go.......However, once a Turtle is brought into captivity it should NEVER be released.......It's Illegal in most States and can expose Native Turtles and other things to who knows what........

Best thing to do is to get it to someone that will keep it long term......
 
Chrisplosion;4585856; said:
I'm 90% positive they don't need UV lighting as long as they have a proper diet.
Click to expand...


Snapper do not need a uv lighting. you can ad a "basking" light to an area of water for a warmer soaking area, but they will almost never truly bask either.
 
That little snapper would probably accept pellets. You can also give it small guppies or minnows.

UV light is recommended, but you could probably get away with out it.

At that size they usually are not in that snap at everything that moves mode, although i have seen some vicious little suckers after a couple months of growth.

Joel
 
You probably shouldn't put him in the koi pond. He will get big, eventually, and then you'll start losing koi.
 
Well it's ok..the want the koi gone in the pond at our community...lol

We did manage to get him to eat thanks to Kevin. He is rapidly eating blood worms and a few Hikari sinking baby pellets. I have changed up the tank since the photo below was taken. I removed the boulders and dropped the water level to 1 inch. He has a small flat rock and a piece of driftwood he climbs up onto. Thanks again for the help Kevin..well heres a pic of the little guy..
web.jpg
 
Yeah he looks abused. You should just send him to me :-)

Good job on the save and he should not go back into the wild after being in captivity. You run the risk of introducing new diseases, viruses, etc
 
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