Habitat - Outdoor :: Buying a House

[vear]

Hi everyone! So, I'm in the process of buying a house with a large yard, yay! I currently live in a 1br. apt with not much space so I'm very excited. I have tons of ideas and tons of questions.

I'd love to be able to build a pond in my backyard, ideally I'd like to have turtles in it, but I live in NY and the thought of putting Tomi or any other slider outside makes me cringe. Although RES are not a native species they do survive here, but still makes me nervous. The main things I worry about are: temperature and predators. It gets cold!! again, I'm in NY. And for those of you with outdoor ponds, what do you do about large birds? I'd be so afraid something is going to fly down and get my turtle and eat him!!

So, basically those are the 2 things I think about the most and I'm wondering what you guys think.

[johnrisky]

Yea, totally, I would worry about that too, big birds... and the temperature. I guess if you choose a pond, that means they need to hibernate, it's tricky, since before the hibernation you need to make sure Tomi to poop out the thing in his belly, or during the hibernation, it might decay.

I am too wondering what other guys do to protect their turltes away from predators.

[steve]

Will Tomi be kept outdoors year round?

[Diamondbacks4Life]

Nothing you really can do if its a large pond. As long as you have plants for cover you shouldnt have to worry about anything getting the turtles. Turtles take off into the water at the slightest movement. Birds are not the thing to worry about it more like raccons. As long as you make your pond deeper then 3ft you wont have to worry about temperatures. The turtles know what to do, the deep area allows them to escape any predators too if they head into the deep area.

[vear]

@Steve - I don't know, haven't really decided what to do yet. It would crush me if something were to happen to him! But I was thinking I could make a nice size pond and rescue some RES in need of a home. I don't know yet, these are just ideas.

@Diamondbacks4life - yeah raccoons and other animals scare me too, I wish I could enclose it somehow! I can technically make a pretty big pond since I'll have plenty of space, it'll just come down to what do I really want to get myself into.

Thank you guys! We probably won't be closing on the house until end of June, beginning of July and we'll have A LOT of things to take care of so the pond would have to wait until next year anyway, but I'm just trying to figure out what to do.

[steve]

If it's outdoors you will have to decide if you want in-ground or above ground. Above ground gives you more options with the potential to bring it indoors during the winter, depending on tank size. There are various types of netting or fencing you can use, but it might not be very attractive. Tough decisions, keep us up to date!