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I was wondering if I can make a year round outdoor pond for my red eared sliders here in the western part of Virginia. I have two sliders now which live indoors and they are getting a little too big now and I was thinking of making them a pond outdoors. Will they survive our winters if I build one that is deep enough not to freeze?
Thanks for any info.

Welcome. Surviving winter in a pond depends... How old/big are your sliders? How cold do your winters get? For starters, a pond would have to be deep enough to be below the frost line and would have to have substrate (mud, leaves, etc.) for them to burrow under. You really need to research the specifics on building a pond they could live in all year. Personally, I wouldn't leave them out all year. I'd keep them outside in the warmer months and bring them in for the winter.

And, the pond should have a barrier around it to make it predator free and not allow them to wander off.

Hi in Virginia, We are in southern NC, and built a large pond in the backyard last year. It is about 1000-1200 gallons, one side is about 3 foot deep and the other half is about 24 inches. Now the winters are mild here for the most part, you are not too far away, so you shouldnt have too many problems with a pond for yoru turts. Ours is filled up pretty high, and we kept the filtration and spitter going all winter, we filled the bottom of the deep end with leaves and mud and an old plastic bucket. The two of our turts hibernated and just emerged last week unscathed from the elements. It did get down to 20's and teens at night here for quite a few weeks, no snow but lots of freezing nights. We compensated by starting the winter off for them with a pond de-icer unit which we let sit at the bottom of the shallow end and a tank heater on max setting to keep the pond from freezing, and both did perfextly, maintained about 38-40 all winter long. We also adapted an old screen tent frame to surround the pond and covered it with the screen part(roof nylon cut out and sewed together) to keep out unwanted limbs and anything that may fall in. We were nervous at first letting them hibernate for the first time, one of them being 7 years old and the other 2, but it was fine. As long as you make it deep enough by 3 foot or more, and keep it from freezing, and make it mucky enough for them to hide and protect themselves to keep warm, they will be fine. Here is our pond as of before winter.

Hope this is helpful to you.

nice pond!