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Hi there, i'm new to this forum stuff, hopefully somebody can help me out. I'm getting my daughter a RES and a tadpole for Christmas. Will a baby RES eat the tadpole if I keep them in the same habitat?

I wouldn't put a tadpole in with your RES especially if its a gift for your daughter. Anything you put in the tank with the turtle has the potential to end up as lunch. Not to mention some frog/toad species are possibly poisonous and can kill your turtle.

Welcome to the forum! How old is your daughter? what kind of tadpole will you be getting? Sadly, the turtle probably will eat a tank mate. They tend to go by the old rule "if it's smaller than me eat it, if it's bigger than me run."

If your daughter is young, then you will be the primary caregiver. Many people here with turtles/young children do not let them interact directly, especially any sort of handling.

Also, you may want to peruse the pictures section and some of the other posts to see what type of a habitat and care the turtle will require when it grows. A cheap-ish Christmas present can turn into hundreds for a large enough tank, filter, lighting etc. If you are considering the turtle because it seems to be cheaper and easier than puppies and kittens you may want to reconsider. I personally don't think that pets make great gifts as a lot of times, the present requires more care than the receiver really wants to give or that christmas puppy gains 70 lbs and starts drooling all over the place

However, if once you find out the requirements for a turtle you still want one, they do make wonderful additions to your animal family. I don't mean to sound negative about the gift idea but if you look around the site, you'll see a lot of posts from some frustrated people who bought a $10 turtle and now are spending several times that to set it up properly.

Thank you all for your suggestions, I do plan on being the primary caregiver and it's not a "cheap-ish" gift, so far it's run me $300.