Hello Everyone!
Just wanted to introduce myself and also say thank you for the wealth of information on this forum. Long story short, I have 2 RES females (8" length) that I rescued from a careless owner.
I volunteered at a dog rescue in Colorado and someone tried to drop off these 2 girls. They were being kept in a small rubbermaid container with only about 4" of water to swim around...no filter...no basking light. We typically did not accept surrenders of any type of animal except dogs but I knew that if I didn't do something these 2 creatures weren't going to survive. Plus, the lady said if we didn't take them in, she was going to release them in a lake *shake my head* My family was actually preparing for a cross-country move from Colorado to Michigan so what better time to adopt 2 semi-aquatic turtles lol.
Since we were in the middle of a move, I couldn't immediately get them into a proper habitat. The day after we took them in, I at least got them setup in a 100 gallon aquarium (3/4 filled with water) with a proper basking area and water filtration. It wasn't exactly the perfect solution but it was much better than they have had so far in life. These 2 girls must be very resilient because they have had no health issues since they came to us! Now that we have made the move and are finished settling in, I am in the process of building them a better habitat using a 300 gallon stock tank set in a wooden frame. The outer rim of the frame will be setup with several basking areas and places for them to roam (along with a waterfall). I am debating on moving down to a 150 gallon tank for this project because I am not sure our living room floor can support the weight of a 300 gal. tank. We could move it to the basement but I want the turtles to get as much natural sunlight as possible and they would get NONE in the basement. From what I've read, 150 gal. might be a bit too small for 2 full grown RES. If push comes to shove, I will just use the 300 gal. tank and reinforce our living room floor
My wife and I are known by our friends as the crazy animal people. Through our rescue efforts, we managed to adopt 6 dogs of our own, an african pygmy hedgehog, and of course the 2 red ear sliders. We live on 10 wooded acres that are completely fenced in so our dogs are free to roam the land when they are outside. We also take them on at least a 1 hour hike every day in the various state parks near us. They've got it rough
Needless to say, we love our animals and I look forward to learning from all of you about how we can better care for our turtles.