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I was looking into a pond heater so in the winter I can leave my RES in my backyard pond. As for how many gallons Iam not sure. Its a man made pond not a plastic one. I would say it has a radius of 3.5 feet and and at the deapest point I would say its 1.5 feet. All the heaters Iam looking at are "de-icers" which it does not seem like that is what I'm looking for. I live in Las Vegas NV so the summer its really hott and the winters can get cold but for at the most 3-4 months. I would say the lows in the winter range from 34-45 F. Any help on which heater would be best would be great. thanks

I live in SoCal and I let my RES hibernate in the winter. How big is your turt?

8-9 Inches from tip of shell to end of shell. When they go into hibernation what should i look for? What needs to be done?

Mine's the same size. I usually just feed her a little more than usual right before she goes out. I don't think mine ever fully hibernates. She usually is in a different place everday but is sleeping or moving really slowly. I throw a few pellets in every other day just in case.

So they do stay in the water then right? And you dont have any heater in the pond? How cold does it get in your area? Anything else you might think I should look for or know going into this.

We have six full grown turtles that live outside year round. Our pond is a free form plastic pond from Home Depot. It is about 3.5 feet deep. We have fairly cold winter nights and our tutles stay in the pond all year.

We have a "skippy" filter that runs on the pond year round and it moves a lot of water through the filter system. During the winter we float a de-icer in the top of the filter barrel. The only problem that we have ever had is that one winter our temperature dropped below freezeing the end of September and the turtles did not have time for the bodies to adjust to the severe cold. Unfortunately, one did not make it and the others came inside and lived in our tub in the master bedroom for the winter.

The turtles hibernate during the winter. Their eating slows down when it starts getting cold and then during the winter they hibernate at the bottom of the pool and they don't come back out until spring. Then when they do start showing up again they start eating slowly and then they go back to their normal eating habits as soon as it starts getting warm.

Depends, some turtles hibernate in water, others hibernate outside. Your going want to get a de-icer so it can let the gases out of the pond, also just in case your turtle wants to hibernate outside of pond it needs a way out. If it hibernates outside your going want to mix your dirt with leaves for the turtle. Going want around 1 /2' to 2' of leaves mixed with some dirt for her/him.

I don't know what your weather is like in the winter, but I'm from NJ and I need atleast 3' deep of a pond for turtles to hibernate.