General Care Discussion :: hatchlings kinda long

[tranzlucent]

so my friend went to the beach and got talked in to thinking that the turtles she saw will stay that size and only need a 10 gal, iceburg lettuce, and some cucumbers to be healthy. so she bought them for me. i had told her i wanted turtles...but not until we moved.

anyways they are setup in a 10 gal for now, a heat lamp, a little doc for them to get out of water, i broke up some turtle bone for them, i got some pellets that this website suggested and i offer green and red leaf lettuce. i ordered a uvb light, 50w heater, and a filter for a 10 gal. my temp gun should be arriving either today or tomorrow, luckily i ordered that for my rtb and ig. i did pick up a therm but i don't think it's working well. i am changing water w/ warm water so it doesn't get too cold until the other stuff gets here, ordered last night so hopefully will be here tomorrow.

i have been feeding them both in a seperate holding tank one at a time. they don't seem to be too into eating. i'm sure the latest chaos has a part to play, and i'm sure they were not taken care of properly. they are both very active. i can't get in to see the vet for 2 weeks, the vet is older and only works a couple evenings a week but he's the best in my area.

so does everything sound o.k. so far? is there anything i'm missing or should be doing? i can take and post pics a little later if wanted, batteries are charging. i'm reading up on them, but i just got them yesterday and was hoping you guys could let me know of what i need to know asap. thanks so much and sorry for being so wordy.

[megcornell]

Sounds like you're off to a good start.
How many turtles do you have?
As you've probably realized, the biggest issue you're going to run into is space- turtles need a lot more space than most people realize. A good rule of thumb is about ten gallons per inch of shell. RES are notorious for fighting, so you may eventually need separate set ups as well.
To start out, you may want to feed the turtles in their tank. It will be messier, but until they adjust it will be much less stressful than moving them to yet another new surrounding. It's a good sign that they're active. New turtles can take a week or so to eat so be patient.
Set up the filter and heater as soon as you can. Hatchlings are very susceptible to infections, so you want a constant water temperature to lessen their chances of getting respiratory infections.
It sounds like you have a good exotics/herp vet, having him check them out doesn't sound like a bad idea.

[tranzlucent]

thanks meg. space is the biggest reason i wanted to wait to get a turtle. i'm really worried about the temps. i really hope that stuff gets here tomorrow. the store i went to yesterday didn't have what i needed. i'll make sure to feed in thier tank for now. i wasn't so much worried about the mess as i was about them sharing the food... there are 2 of them. i'm keeping an eye out for bigger tanks and also extra tank incase they do need to be seperated. they are getting along great for the time being though. money is tight right now so i won't be able to get a bigger tank til next week, unless i find one pretty cheap. just got all the bills paid and a car out of the shop, lol. thanks again for the reply

[megcornell]

I'm not sure if it's still going on, but petco was having it's dollar per gallon sale. That's a good place to start looking for a tank.

[PcBuilder14]

It ends Friday! So hurry up.