General Care Discussion :: New Turtle

[ohsnapitscharity]

Ok, so I know how to take care of turtles. Thats not the issue. The issue is a got a new hatchling that is quite a bit smaller then my current turtle and I was hoping to house them together. The pictures will show the size difference. What do you think?


ALSO IS THAT AN EGG TOOTH ON THE SMALL TURTLE?
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[worldpeace]

My advice would be to keep them separated for now. That's a really young baby turtle, probably a couple of weeks old (yes, that's an egg tooth), and he might not even be accustomed to swimming. I say keep him in a separate enclosure for a month or so (you're supposed to isolate the new turtle anyways for about 90 days before you should introduce him to the older one).

If you do decide to put them together at some point, do be careful please. I have two turtles and they do not get along at all. The older one bullies the smaller one non-stop. Make sure you supervise them and separate them at the tiniest sign of aggression.

[Ranger The Red Ear Slider]

Im not a turtle expert, but i think you should house them in diffrent tanks. I read a few times that as turtle gets older it gets more territorial. So adding a new turtle while he has already been alone for a while, can lead to them fighting and hurting eachother which will most likely be the hatchling hurt the most

[Ranger The Red Ear Slider]

Just out of curiosity how big are the 2 turtles?

[ohsnapitscharity]

the larger one is about 2inches maybe a little bigger and the smaller one is an inch at the very most

[untsmurf]

Don't house them together. You need to quarantine the new turtle for a 90 day period to ensure he's not sick.

Once the quarantine period is over, the best chance you'll have of housing them together is by buying an all new setup and introducing both of them to it at the same time. That way nobody has a previous claim on the tank. You'd also want to provide lots of fake plants for each turtle to hide in and have privacy. And feed them separately so that you know for sure that the smaller turtle is getting to eat. Due to the major size difference though, there's a good chance that this won't work and the smaller one could be killed by the larger one.

[rsour24]

i wouldnt do it.