Posted: Mon Oct 06, 2014 9:47 pm Wintering in a metal trough?
Hi Folks:
I just joined this board. We have a pair of red-eared sliders that are over a year old. We got them about a year ago. (Actually, one is a replacement for another that died, but I won't get into that right now. The replacement looks about as old as the other one.)
Their shells are probably 4-5 inches long from front to back at this point. I bought them from a store that sells red-eared sliders on a regular basis. One of the employees has a pond in her backyard and used to have a mating pair whose offspring the store sold. She had to get rid of her male because it was too aggressive, though.
Anyway, we had them indoors in a 20-gallon fish tank with lights until they got too big. I need to dig a pond, and have spoken to that employee at the store about how to do so, but in the meantime, we bought a long metal trough that's half-filled with water. It has a pump and filter running, and I set up some basking spots for the turtles. I set it up around mid-July.
They're doing okay right now. We live in northern CA - Chico, to be exact, which is about 2 hours north of Sacramento. We have really hot summers. Right now, the weather is still in the 80s and 90s during the day, although it's now dipping into the upper 50s overnight.
In the winter, it will get pretty cold, but red-eared sliders live year-round outdoors around here. In fact, they've become an invasive species and have threatened the pond turtles that are natural to this area. It can dip to freezing, although it never snows here. We usually have wet, cold winters.
I figured the turtles could winter in the trough, until I get the pond dug in the spring, but when I was at that store this past weekend, I was told they'll freeze to death. The guy there said they need to be able to come out of the water and dig into the ground to hibernate, assuming it stays cold enough. Our past couple winters have been warmer than usual and not nearly wet enough (we're dealing with a drought now in CA), so he said they might not stay in the ground, but he did say they would need to come out of the trough.
However, I've read elsewhere that they will hibernate at the bottom of the water. I just have rocks at the bottom right now, and some leaves have settled down there.
Can they survive if I put some debris down there for them, or do I need to just dig that pond now, put the filter and pump in it, and get them acclimated there ASAP for the winter?
And if I put them in a pond now, what's the best way to keep them from wandering away? Our fences aren't in good shape, so I have no doubt they will easily get into a neighbor's yard and end up who knows where. They could also easily go into our RV park on the side of the house and slip right under the gate.
I was thinking cement blocks around the perimeter would keep them there. It might not look pretty, but in the short term I think it would prevent them from getting away. I would just make sure they had some ground around the pond to walk around on and burrow into if necessary. I've been told that small fences won't do much to keep them in there.
Many thanks in advance for any advice.