Jonas - 2009-06-13 Hello, I am Jonas. I too have a red eared slider, and two yellow bellied turtles. I am also convinced that my RES loves music, because when the radio is on, he starts dancing!
Suni - 2009-06-01 Hi I'm Suni. I have 2 RES. One fell into my pool, I guess from the lake in my backyard. I named it April. I found her April 2nd. The other one, my cousins and I were at the lake, and a little head popped out of the water. The RES climbed out and we kept him! The 2 turtles get along really well, and they eat a lot! But, they do have great personalities!
Kelly Miller - 2009-05-14 I have one RES about 2 yrs old. His name is Hermie. He seems to like music. Does anyone else have a turtle that likes music...I took him to my preschool, and the kids just love singing time now because the turle will swim up to the glass and pop his head out like he is listening. They even seem to think he dances during this time. Even if he is not we enjoy watching him, and he has been a blessing to my classroom.
Mike - 2009-05-13 My name is Mike form Port Jervis N.Y. I have 2 RES named Cash Money, and Dollar. Cash Money is about 3 and growing like crazy. Dollar is 1 1/2 and has a lump on the side of his hesd below the eye. I assume it's an ear abscess and the info I gathered from this awesome website says to treat it with betadine then follow with silvadine. I pray it works...it looks painful. Poor little Dollar. Thanx 4 the info animal-world!
Ethan - 2009-04-11 Hi! My name is Ethan from LI [Long Island]. I have a 8in. long red eared slider turtle. I named it SHELLY. It is a female. Her old owner was my mom's friend's daughter. She got it when it was a hatchling from china town [the people in china town were going to make her into turtle soup]. Her old name was Ferragamo but I did not like that name so I changed it. She loves people. I feed her twice a day. She likes turkey slices, frozen blood worms, turtle sticks, tubex worms [a little], and for a treat I use cat food. Very soon I will start to feed her lettuce and maybe a few other veggies. She is in a 30 gal. tank with a basking lamp, 2 big peaces of slate rock for a land area, a rena smart heater, fluval 3 plus filter for 30gal. tanks and turtles are messy. So since the tank is half full with water, that would be good enough to clean the tank, but I also have a anubias plant, another kind of plant, a fake tree stump decoration, fake plant, fake turtle, tiny brown gravel, and small pieces of slate rocks. Like I said before, turtles are very messy animal's, so I have a seperate tank to feed her in [acually it is a empty cat litter box]. Soon I will get a 60gal. tank. I will also get another red eared slider and a few other kinds of turtles, like painted turtles and soft shelled turtles. Also I will get a large pleco fish and a chinese water dragon. I love red eared slider turtles and I can't believe that some people get rid of adult red eared slider's. I also can't believe people say red eared slider's aren't the best pet turtle's. But they do get big and they have special needs, but they have great personalities too.
mark - 2009-04-01 I just noticed an earlier comment states "Their hard shells make them practically immune to injuries from falls, so if they freak out while being handled and get dropped, don't worry."
That is bad, and dangerous advice. A turtle's shell does provide some protection sure, but a LOT of internal damage can occur when a turtle is dropped. Imagine this example if you will. A mishandled turtle is dropped or allowed to fall from a counter. He lands on his shell on the hard floor. This internal organs still have momentum from the fall (Kinetic energy) and can tear or suffer damage as they now continue to move inside of him (imagine crashing your car into a tree without a seatbelt). The turtles insides are like passengers inside the car, not wearing seat-belts. Another example would be falling and hitting your head on the cement. While your skull may not crack, you can easily suffer a Concussion as your brain "bounces" around inside your skull.
I ask that the prior comment be removed, or at least edited to delete that one line. Turtles suffer from enough bad handling due to improper care advice as it is (death bowls for example).
jop - 2009-03-17 I have 2 little turtles myself and the seem pretty smart! Does anyone know a few tricks i can try to learn them? all they do now is chase the whole aquarium after a dried shrip in my hand. But i think they are capable of much more but cant think of what to try and train them!
ashley - 2009-01-29 I have two RES that my fiancee brought back from New York. He actually drove them in the car from New York to Oklahoma. I had always wanted one and I was so surprised and excited to have a new addition. I at first put them in a 10 gallon tank with some fish I had. A few months later I came home one day to find they had made a meal of my pet fish so I knew it was time they had their own home. They now have a 28 gallon tank with a huge rock waterfall filter. They are so funny. When they hear my door open I can hear them plop into the water from the top of the waterfall and they swim against the tank. I read one of the earlier comments and I also put a feeder fish in the tank which seems to be doing fine. When they see the fish from the top of the filter they jump in the water. I think they are hunting :) Anyways, I absolutely love my turtles. I hope anyone who has them loves them and cares for them as much as I do.
alexandra - 2009-01-25 Hello, my name is Alex, and over the summer we bought two RES. I find these little guys to be quite smart, they know me, and will only rush to one side of the tank if I am near it. Anyone else spooks them. I have noticed the assumed male is very bold, and is easy to handle. The assumed female is a bit more nervous, tries to run away when picked up, and spends most of her time hiding in their cactus tunnel. She has also grown much faster than the male.
They seem to do very well with a gravel substrate, and if you have a large bowl or strainer, the substrate takes no less than five minutes to clean. We usually rinse and scrub the tank walls, rinse and scrub the rocks and cactus tunnel. We do this about bi-weekly. (note that the tank is 10 gallon, and takes a while to actually get dirty).
We keep the water about the same height as the width of their shells, which for ours is one and a half inches. For our turtles this gravel works nicely since they enjoy digging little craters and like to crawl. It also prevents slipping that would happen with a glass floor, whenever they poke their heads up to breathe. We don't use a heating source, and simply keep the tank at room temperature.
I highly recommend artificial plants, since these turtles will eat live plants. Fake plants give them extra places to hide. We use a big flat rock as a ramp, with a gravel hill beside it for them to climb up and bask. Do note that these little guys can climb, and tend to accidentally flip themselves on their backs, and I have a friend who's adult RES climbed up the filter and escaped. Their hard shells make them practically immune to injuries from falls, so if they freak out while being handled and get dropped, don't worry. I have a lot of flat river rocks for them to literally climb over to get climbing urges out of their system.
We also have an air stone, it' not necessary but they really enjoy the extra oxygen in the water. They are very sweet, don't bite at all, don't scratch. When picking them up you should gently pinch them between fingers and thumb, their stomach resting on your fingers, and back under your thumb. This keeps them from running away and scratching you if something spooks them. They also get nervous when put back in a tank after cleaning and things have been moved around dramatically. Try to keep the set up as similar as possible after cleanings to avoid stress.
Dawn Lanoue - 2009-01-23 Hi my name is Dawn and my family and I have two red eared sliders. One is pretty big and the other is little smaller. We got them about six months apart when the first one was about the size of the palm of your hand. My son at the time was 2 and assumed that the turtle was a boy like him and called him Eeyore so it stuck. Then we got a second turtle and my daughter decided she looked like a Keela so that name stuck. We have had them both for about a year and a half now and just assumed all this time that they were the sex they were. Then I go on this website to find out about their laying habits and what to do if they won't eat(because they have not been eating much) and I find out that Eeyore is actually a Keela, and Keela is actually an Eeyore. How funny is that. I also read some of the comments on fussy eaters and I do say that it will help. We are going to try some of the suggestions that have been posted and will write back with our progress. Thanks for the help.
The Red Eared Slider has been a favorite household pet for many years!
Hello, I am Jonas. I too have a red eared slider, and two yellow bellied turtles. I am also convinced that my RES loves music, because when the radio is on, he starts dancing!
Hi I'm Suni. I have 2 RES. One fell into my pool, I guess from the lake in my backyard. I named it April. I found her April 2nd. The other one, my cousins and I were at the lake, and a little head popped out of the water. The RES climbed out and we kept him! The 2 turtles get along really well, and they eat a lot! But, they do have great personalities!
I have one RES about 2 yrs old. His name is Hermie. He seems to like music. Does anyone else have a turtle that likes music...I took him to my preschool, and the kids just love singing time now because the turle will swim up to the glass and pop his head out like he is listening. They even seem to think he dances during this time. Even if he is not we enjoy watching him, and he has been a blessing to my classroom.
My name is Mike form Port Jervis N.Y. I have 2 RES named Cash Money, and Dollar. Cash Money is about 3 and growing like crazy. Dollar is 1 1/2 and has a lump on the side of his hesd below the eye. I assume it's an ear abscess and the info I gathered from this awesome website says to treat it with betadine then follow with silvadine. I pray it works...it looks painful. Poor little Dollar. Thanx 4 the info animal-world!
Hi! My name is Ethan from LI [Long Island]. I have a 8in. long red eared slider turtle. I named it SHELLY. It is a female. Her old owner was my mom's friend's daughter. She got it when it was a hatchling from china town [the people in china town were going to make her into turtle soup]. Her old name was Ferragamo but I did not like that name so I changed it. She loves people. I feed her twice a day. She likes turkey slices, frozen blood worms, turtle sticks, tubex worms [a little], and for a treat I use cat food. Very soon I will start to feed her lettuce and maybe a few other veggies. She is in a 30 gal. tank with a basking lamp, 2 big peaces of slate rock for a land area, a rena smart heater, fluval 3 plus filter for 30gal. tanks and turtles are messy. So since the tank is half full with water, that would be good enough to clean the tank, but I also have a anubias plant, another kind of plant, a fake tree stump decoration, fake plant, fake turtle, tiny brown gravel, and small pieces of slate rocks. Like I said before, turtles are very messy animal's, so I have a seperate tank to feed her in [acually it is a empty cat litter box]. Soon I will get a 60gal. tank. I will also get another red eared slider and a few other kinds of turtles, like painted turtles and soft shelled turtles. Also I will get a large pleco fish and a chinese water dragon. I love red eared slider turtles and I can't believe that some people get rid of adult red eared slider's. I also can't believe people say red eared slider's aren't the best pet turtle's. But they do get big and they have special needs, but they have great personalities too.
I just noticed an earlier comment states "Their hard shells make them practically immune to injuries from falls, so if they freak out while being handled and get dropped, don't worry."
That is bad, and dangerous advice. A turtle's shell does provide some protection sure, but a LOT of internal damage can occur when a turtle is dropped. Imagine this example if you will. A mishandled turtle is dropped or allowed to fall from a counter. He lands on his shell on the hard floor. This internal organs still have momentum from the fall (Kinetic energy) and can tear or suffer damage as they now continue to move inside of him (imagine crashing your car into a tree without a seatbelt). The turtles insides are like passengers inside the car, not wearing seat-belts. Another example would be falling and hitting your head on the cement. While your skull may not crack, you can easily suffer a Concussion as your brain "bounces" around inside your skull.
I ask that the prior comment be removed, or at least edited to delete that one line. Turtles suffer from enough bad handling due to improper care advice as it is (death bowls for example).
I have 2 little turtles myself and the seem pretty smart! Does anyone know a few tricks i can try to learn them? all they do now is chase the whole aquarium after a dried shrip in my hand. But i think they are capable of much more but cant think of what to try and train them!
I have two RES that my fiancee brought back from New York. He actually drove them in the car from New York to Oklahoma. I had always wanted one and I was so surprised and excited to have a new addition. I at first put them in a 10 gallon tank with some fish I had. A few months later I came home one day to find they had made a meal of my pet fish so I knew it was time they had their own home. They now have a 28 gallon tank with a huge rock waterfall filter. They are so funny. When they hear my door open I can hear them plop into the water from the top of the waterfall and they swim against the tank. I read one of the earlier comments and I also put a feeder fish in the tank which seems to be doing fine. When they see the fish from the top of the filter they jump in the water. I think they are hunting :) Anyways, I absolutely love my turtles. I hope anyone who has them loves them and cares for them as much as I do.
Hello, my name is Alex, and over the summer we bought two RES. I find these little guys to be quite smart, they know me, and will only rush to one side of the tank if I am near it. Anyone else spooks them. I have noticed the assumed male is very bold, and is easy to handle. The assumed female is a bit more nervous, tries to run away when picked up, and spends most of her time hiding in their cactus tunnel. She has also grown much faster than the male.
They seem to do very well with a gravel substrate, and if you have a large bowl or strainer, the substrate takes no less than five minutes to clean. We usually rinse and scrub the tank walls, rinse and scrub the rocks and cactus tunnel. We do this about bi-weekly. (note that the tank is 10 gallon, and takes a while to actually get dirty).
We keep the water about the same height as the width of their shells, which for ours is one and a half inches. For our turtles this gravel works nicely since they enjoy digging little craters and like to crawl. It also prevents slipping that would happen with a glass floor, whenever they poke their heads up to breathe. We don't use a heating source, and simply keep the tank at room temperature.
I highly recommend artificial plants, since these turtles will eat live plants. Fake plants give them extra places to hide. We use a big flat rock as a ramp, with a gravel hill beside it for them to climb up and bask. Do note that these little guys can climb, and tend to accidentally flip themselves on their backs, and I have a friend who's adult RES climbed up the filter and escaped. Their hard shells make them practically immune to injuries from falls, so if they freak out while being handled and get dropped, don't worry. I have a lot of flat river rocks for them to literally climb over to get climbing urges out of their system.
We also have an air stone, it' not necessary but they really enjoy the extra oxygen in the water. They are very sweet, don't bite at all, don't scratch. When picking them up you should gently pinch them between fingers and thumb, their stomach resting on your fingers, and back under your thumb. This keeps them from running away and scratching you if something spooks them. They also get nervous when put back in a tank after cleaning and things have been moved around dramatically. Try to keep the set up as similar as possible after cleanings to avoid stress.
Hi my name is Dawn and my family and I have two red eared sliders. One is pretty big and the other is little smaller. We got them about six months apart when the first one was about the size of the palm of your hand. My son at the time was 2 and assumed that the turtle was a boy like him and called him Eeyore so it stuck. Then we got a second turtle and my daughter decided she looked like a Keela so that name stuck. We have had them both for about a year and a half now and just assumed all this time that they were the sex they were. Then I go on this website to find out about their laying habits and what to do if they won't eat(because they have not been eating much) and I find out that Eeyore is actually a Keela, and Keela is actually an Eeyore. How funny is that. I also read some of the comments on fussy eaters and I do say that it will help. We are going to try some of the suggestions that have been posted and will write back with our progress.
Thanks for the help.
The Lanoue Family from Windsor,Ont.