General Care Discussion :: 3 New Babies = 1 New Dilemma

[Miss Frost]

I've found myself in a predicament in the past two hours. I was out of town the past couple of days attending a concert with my sister. On our way back home, I got a phone call from my dad. My dad runs a U-Haul business alongside his own and had rented a truck to a family that was moving to a new house. After they had been talking a while, the family told my dad that they had just found out they were unable to take their pets to their new house. Their pets happened to be three baby RES. My dad had mentioned my five year old RES, Carly, to them so they knew that I knew how to care for them.

Long story short, I now have 3 little RES. I'm afraid to put them in my big tank with Carly, so I got an old 10 gallon tank out of storage (the one I raised Carly in) and put them in there with some fresh water, heat lamp, and a dock. Two of them are much bigger than the last and the smallest one is very slow to move. I'm afraid that maybe there's something wrong with it. It's been moving around better since we've been home a while, though. Hopefully it was just bashful.

Anyway, I'm attaching pictures of all three. Any ideas on what I can do with these guys? I'll keep them and raise them if necessary, but will I need individual tanks for all or what? I'm clueless on raising multiple RES.

[SpotsMama]

My goodness - the little ones are awfully lucky to have found you!

Keep the littlest one warm (80 to 82 degrees) and separated from the others until you know if he/she's healthy. Even then, if there's much of a size difference between him/her and the other two, best to keep him/her separate for safety's sake.

Along those lines, you need to keep your 5 year old separate from the new ones for 90 days - yes, that's three months. That's the quarantine period needed to be sure the new ones don't have something communicable they could pass on to the old timer.

The 10 gallon tank will be a good quarantine tank for the little one. Consider getting a large tank to house the other two. If that's going to stretch the budget too far, consider a stock tank for a longer term tank for the new ones. Stock tanks are inexpensive and make excellent homes for turtles. I've seen them fixed up to be attractive, too.

Good luck! You're very brave to be taking on these new turtles.

[Caphits]

You could always look at re-homing them.

[marisa]

If they all make it to adultood, you're eventually going to be looking at something like a pond. Whether or not they'll get along to able to stay in one tank only time will tell. If they're males (or two of them are), chances are slim to none. Females tend to get along more than males. If they're kept together in too small an enclosure, however, either sex will fight as they grow.

[Miss Frost]

My best friend is going to take the two larger ones. She and her kids have raised RES before, so they know the general gist of what to do. She called me today and said she was out with the kids getting a bigger tank, a dock, and everything else.

I'm keeping the smallest one until I know for sure that he/she is healthy. Then I'll decide whether or not to keep it or try to find another home. Thanks so much for your help, guys!

[marisa]

Sounds like a good plan.