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Outdoor habitat

PostPosted: Tue Jan 10, 2017 7:14 pm
by Stefan Fenech
I keep my RES in an outdoor enclosure day temperatutr is 13degrees goong down to 3degres at night. They do not seem to brunate but still active but latergic. Do not eat at all.
Is this ok ?

Re: Outdoor habitat

PostPosted: Wed Jan 11, 2017 5:26 am
by steve
How big are they and how big is the enclosure? How long have you had them?

Re: Outdoor habitat

PostPosted: Sat Mar 04, 2017 7:41 am
by Unclefrancy
I keep my turtles in a 22" diameter black plastic tub that is 13" high. Im in the tropics so they are outside 24/7. My turtle's are a 12" ,13 year old female. 2 x 3.5" 3 year old females and a 3" 3 year old male. I vary the amount of water from 3/4 of a full tub to no water at all. The turtles are let out in the garden once in a while to excercise. I drain the tub of water every day and give the turtles a washing with the garden hose.

The tub is a very convenient and sanitary way of keeping the turtles.


My old set up for my big turtle was a 65 galloon cement pond ( no filter ) that she could get out off located in an enclosed garden. She would sometimes disappear from sight hidding in the garden for up to 3 weeks. She lived on fallen fruits fron the trees. The Cement pond was a breeding place for mosquitos.

Re: Outdoor habitat

PostPosted: Sun Mar 05, 2017 11:41 am
by litefoot
Unclefrancy please help me . Sorry if I am assuming it's a round tub since you gave diameter ! You said 22" diameter x 13" high? Are each of the four all in a separate 22" tub ? One 22"x13" round can only hold at best 23 gallons ! http://www.gardenponds.com/Round-Pond-Calculator.html

Is it radius not diameter ?

Maybe it's my old screen seeing 22 inches diameter and may / could be 22 feet diameter instead? Sorry if I'm just seeing this wrong. 22 feet x 13 inches would be 2850 gallons and that's great ! Wish I could have that.

Did you get them as adults and or raise them from babies? Could you help me understand the tubs / size better , thanks' !

Re: Outdoor habitat

PostPosted: Thu Aug 31, 2017 10:01 pm
by RedEarSliderOwner
I live in Kennewick, Washington. I am a beginning Red Ear Slider owner. Got my turtle off of craigslist. She is 6 years old. I purchased a pet pool on ebay for about $50. It is about 5 feet in diameter, and about 11" high. I put her in there around the end of June or the first of July, and she has been out ever since all day. I also purchased a puppy playpen for fencing and just put it all around the area, giving her some grassy and muddy area inside. I also got her a cave from petsmart, where she sleeps every night, and climbs on top of to bask during the day. She seems to love it out there. The puppy fence is 2 feet high and about 4 feet by 8 feet wide/long. I haven't needed to put it underneath the ground to prevent digging, since there is pretty tall grass not just dirt near the fence. She had never tried to dig outside so far as I know. It got pretty dirty, since I didn't want to change the water, to leave her a natural pond. It began to be murky, and smelled over time, but with water changes it is nice and clear and clean and smells ok. Holds about 250 gallons.

Re: Outdoor habitat

PostPosted: Sat Sep 02, 2017 1:00 am
by steve
What are your plans as it gets colder?

Re: Outdoor habitat

PostPosted: Sun Jul 22, 2018 3:44 am
by NorCalGal
In mid April I saw a large RES crossing a very busy road in an area where a new, very large housing development was under construction. I brought her home to my back yard, where I had a 30 gallon pond with waterfall built into my garden. She seemed to settle in and liked to nestle herself into a large geranium bush that was approximately 4 feet in diameter. It wasn't long before she explored the rest of my yard and traveled to the cover of my built in pool and waded about in small water puddles on the cover that were rich in pollen, leaves and insects. She would bask there by day then seek the cover of the geranium bush later in the day. Well, in May the pool cover came off and she just took over the pool-40,000 gallons to swim about in. Concerned that the chlorine might affect her, I'd scoop her out and re-orient her to the pond and geranium bush. No sooner than I do that, she scoots back to the pool. She is so happy just gliding on top of the pool, head up, not a care in the world it seems. So I added cinder blocks and large pieces of shale so she has a platform to climb out and bask on. Where I live, it gets pretty hot- this week it has been 100 degrees every day. The pool water temps 3 feet down is 85 degrees. On days I super chlorinate I put her into a large dog crate with a cat litter box full of water for at least 48 hours (she is not happy). This week I noticed she dropped 10 eggs all over the bottom of the deep end of my pool. Since she has been in my yard just over 3 months, I don't think they are fertile. (I took one out, cracked the shell, and there was yellow liquid yolk but there was a solid yellow chunk as well). I have no idea if she had been living in the wild for a long or short time before I found her, so I am not sure how I need to prepare her for the winter. I will put my pool cover back on in September or October- do I leave her outside in my garden where the temps generally go down to 40s at night (sometimes cooler) or create some sort of indoor pen in my spare garage with a heat lamp and mini pond. Feedback appreciated.

Re: Outdoor habitat

PostPosted: Sun Jul 22, 2018 11:49 am
by steve
When you found her, it was possible she was looking for a place to nest. It's OK to discard those eggs right away. If you can't find her a natural habitat to return her to, then you have a few options. Since the pool doesn't freeze, it's possible she could survive though there needs to be some aeration and usually some substrate for her. You can maybe get a large stock tank and let her try to brumate there or if you set it up with lamps and a heater, she would be active during the winter.