redearslider.com

Just wondering who has the oldest guy or gal on the site.

I think there are a couple in the 60-range (not sure if they are RES), and a few in the 40 range. There might be a thread about it too.

the 60 range would be land based right? I doubt there are any sea turtle owners on here.

slider_keeper wrote:the 60 range would be land based right? I doubt there are any sea turtle owners on here.

Freshwater aquatic turtles like RES yes. Sea turtles are protected and highly illegal to possess

yeah thats why I made that comment about the sea turtles VeipaCray;) Are you saying a RES will live 60 yrs?! I have only heard of 40 yrs for them in Captivity and if I'm not mistaken no really knows how long they live in the wild!

Aren't RES lifespan 30 years?

Well this is the question. To be honest with you, I don't think anyone really knows. There is people out there that don't document the life span of their turtles, much less talk about their experience. In the wild, can you really tell how old a animal is? I sometimes question the herptologist? As far as the true answer to how long they really live, I feel there isn't enough research! Someone that has digged dipper than myself please respond!

No, the older turtles I think were cooters and a different type of slider.

ok Steve that makes sense;)

Toady is now 41. She has outlived 3 dogs followed by 3 of 4 cats. The last cat is now 18.
Toady enjoys a prime location in each of the five homes we have lived in around the country. Her bedroom (a 10 gallon shallow water tank that is on a stand next to her big tank) allows her to drydock, or get wet, through the night. During the day, she moves up to a 55 gallon tank that gives her unobstructed view of the kitchen table, TV or outside view of the garden. On days when the pool water is 75F or warmer, she is outside in our salt water pool. This year she has a pool buddy....a frog...that shares the sun with her.



They are sunning on top of the pool cleaner's water supply hose. Toady has rested on that hose for several years now since the exotic pet vet said a salt water bath now and then would cure her shell rot or fungus. We now treat her 55 gallon tank with the same 3200ppm natural salt as our pool. She slides up and balances on the hose to buoy her mostly out of the water. We think she is dreaming of being on the front of a ship.



We tried all the standard turtle food. She ignores it as it floats around and eventually plugs the filters. She has eaten mostly the small bits and pieces of the hard food of what ever animal we had a the time be it dog food, cat food, or hamster. She loves an occassional house fly that is crippled by the fly swatter but not quite dead. She thinks she is JAWS as she creeps up on the feast. We have learned not to get a finger or hand too close or she latches on.

She has never been really sick. We took her to the vet once when her shell changed color and she was lathargic. An ocean salt solution bath once a night for week snapped her out of it.

We were wondering how long she might still live. I started a search and found this website. Now that we see there are 60+ old sliders on this site, we may also have to add her to our wills...along with a trust fund!

whoaa! welcome! you should post your own thread about toady. we'd love to hear your experiences!

41! Wow!!

So, was she a dime store turtle that you actually knew how to care for? The timeframe would be about right.

dumbork14 wrote:whoaa! welcome! you should post your own thread about toady. we'd love to hear your experiences!

I AGREE.

Wow. I thought my Betty was old at 11-12. I knew they'd live a long time, but holy moly.
Guess my kids are going to be able to share their turtle pals with THEIR kids.

Mine r all youngsters I have 3 Mississippi Maps, 2 females 1 male, and a extremely fat female RES who I inherited from my ex. The Maps ages r 3-4 years old r named Scrappy, Spike, and Casanova. My RES is named squishy and she is 6 or 7. They have all played together for about 3 years now as they r all in the same tank and do really well with one another

Learned two things about Toady this last year. The first was that we found pictures of Toady from 1969. So that puts this RES at 47 up a year from what I said last in 2012. The other item takes some explanation. Took Toady to the exotic vet for problems with eating. Turns out it was just turtle fasting. Some days they just don't want to eat. After 4-5 days we were concerned. We kept mentioning "she" does this or that. The vet said little during our descriptions. Then the vet said "you know she is a he, right?" Jaws dropped. So I must announce I have a four-legged, hardshell son.

He is still a mover and shaker. Bangs on his 15 gallon heated bedroom, with double pool coping tile dry dock, at dawn each day to announce he wants out. He either goes directly to his 55 gallon playroom or the 9200 gallon salt water pool. On some days we rinse and towel him off so he can crawl around the tiled sunroom and kitchen. So far no accidents be he loves to explore. He is no slouch on speed either.

Built him a PVC bridge with mesh landing pads over the spillway from our ground level spa to the pool. No instructions were needed by Toady. Within 5 minutes he had gone back and forth a few times as if he had done it a thousand times before. Last year I added a "sun deck" to his bridge. We had seen RES in a park all basking on large boulders rising from the ponds so figured he might like a place to get out and dry at his leisure. The stretchy fabric hammocks him a bit, and along with the railings on the bridge, keep him from going to the edges of the wall between spa and pool to make a clean get away to the pool landscaping. His owners were taught this lesson a couple of times when he was not found after being left on the spillway.







His 55 gallon playroom developed a slow seep back in February. Took 2 complete scrape outs, cleanings, and aquarium sealant applications to make it waterproof again. Seems I do this every 5-7 years. Old sealant will not stick to new sealant. Acetone and mucho rinsing, and drying is the key. Can't rush the process. It takes one whole day to scrape, clean, and dry before I start the seal the next day. I allow 48 hours there after to cure before adding water.

This time we did not reintroduce the ancient aquarium rocks to his clean playroom. Every time I drained to replenish the water before this time, the rocks were a mess requiring multiple rinses, a 30 minute Clorox and water soak, rinse again followed by a fill. Twice a year I removed the rocks and boiled them in water for 15 minutes. It has been 3+ months and today, when I performed the monthly drain, flush, and refill, I found 3 small rock presents at the bottom. Looked up online and found it was not a good idea to use the small gravel. It is not supposed to be a digestive aid as do birds. So now Toady has a clean, modern, all glass sides, hexagon playroom. When I looked for links on the gravel eating, I saw this website. Did not realize it had been 5 years since my last and only entry. If Toady keeps on moving on, I will have to repost before the next 5 years have lapsed.