General Care Discussion :: Baby RES

[Evie]

So a carnie, of all things, gave me a baby RES! He said his landlord wouldn't let him keep them. (How shady.)

I've never had to care for anything without fur or fins. This turtle is just over an inch long, and I'm terrified for his sake. I don't know what his living conditions were before he was given to us, but judging by his owner, they were hardly ideal.

I usually do heavy research before bringing anything home, but I didn't expect this from Mr. Ball-in-Bucket. I know nothing about turtles!

We've set him up in a 20gal. with a basking rock, lamp and water dish. It's not a "heat lamp," per se, but it's warm. There's plenty of water for him to swim in, but he seems a little ungainly. I'm sorry, this is a really dumb question, but...can baby turtles drown?

Anyway, I really don't know what to get him. I'm not going to be cheap, so I'd love recommendations as far as filters, food, gravel, plants, landings, lamps...anything. We're feeding him Tetra ReptoMin Floating Food Sticks. Is that okay, or should we get him something better?

How often do they sleep?

I'm sorry for all of the questions.

[xsavingsaturdayx]

the floating food sticks are fine, you may want to get your turtle some brine shrimp and try introducing veggie's too him as well, such as romaine lettuce. a 20 gallon tank is fine for a baby RES, but as they grow up you might wanna get a bigger enclouser for your turtle's health [=

if your short on cash, rubbermaid container's work realy well.i currently have my two baby's in a 50 gallon rubbermaid container.

RES's are realy good swimmers, dont worry about your turtle drowning, give him as much water as you can, they love to swim. just becareful and dont overfill the tank, if you do it can result in your turtle escaping! and injurying him/her self.

get your baby a basking dock, you can find them in almost any petshop.
i got mine for 5 dollars, they have "small" medium" and "large", you pick!
they need a basking lamp too, try places like pet supermarket, for the basking lamp, because pet shops usually rip you off, i made the dumb mistake of getting mine at one and the guy charged me 35 dollars!
a week later i went to pet supermarket and i found one for 15 dollars!

you should get a filter too, i dont know much about them. so i cant help you out much on that.
gravel is a bad idea for turtle's, they can sometimes swallow the small pebbles and it cause in sever injury's.

they dont sleep THAT often, mine usually go to sleep when i shut off the lights and when my room is at peace, they sleep underwater and on dry land sometimes. so dont freak out if you find your turtle with his eyes closed underwater, cause he's just snoozin!

[xsavingsaturdayx]

oh and by the way, a water heater is a MUST!

hope that helped!

[flutterby]

In addition, give your turtle some plants to rest on when its tired from swimming.

[Evie]

Thank you for the advice! I'm going to do some more shopping next weekend to buy him treats and more things for his tank. What kinds of plants are okay for turtles?

He won't eat! I'm really worried. He's had plenty of opportunities, and this morning I gave him a tiny piece of apple, but he doesn't seem interested at all. How does he know that the floating sticks are food? They just float to the sides, and it seems as if he could care less.

[CountryGirl68]

Welcome Evie.

Don't worry just yet that your turtle isn't eating. He's just getting used to his environment and may take a few days (sometimes even weeks) before he will eat.

My suggestions for his new home would be: a 20 gallon tank for a 1 inch turtle is good for now. But he will grow so go as big as you can in tank size as soon as you can and get one that is long rather than tall. This will save you money in the long run. Especially during the first year when the turtle can reach 3 to 4 inches, meaning he'll need at least a 40 gallon tank.

For the filter, get one that is made for a tank 3x the size you actually get. Turtles are much messier than fish and need a stronger filter. For example, if you get a 30 gallon tank, the filter should be for at least 90 gallons.

For your turtle (which is a hatchling or baby turtle), feed it hatchling pellets every day, as well as veggies - you can find out which veggies in the Feeding and Nutrition sticky "What to feed your RES". Hatchlings are also more carnivorous than grown turtles so adding some protein (fish, shrimp, crickets) is a good idea.

Add just a couple of fake plants (made for aquariums) to the tank like Flutterby said. And skip the gravel like savingsaturday said. Turtles are notorious for eating gravel which can cause serious impaction problems.

For the basking area (landing), you will need something that will stay above water. They sell turtle docks that suction to the side of the tank. Avoid the floating logs because they will float around the tank and away from the basking lamps. The only down side with the suction-type docks is that a few members here have had their turtles get stuck between the bars holding the dock up and, if the turtle cannot get out to get air, it will drown. Do a search about PVC; you'll get some really good ideas about homemade docks that are safe.

For the lamps, you need a heat light, and a UVA and UVB light. I use T-Rex Active which includes all three because my tank is in the living room and it looks "neater" with just one lamp; but you can use more than one lamp as long as they give the needed rays and heat. Others here use the RepiSun for the UVB. It's a matter of choice.

Finally, and this is just some advice, you can get chicken wire (with 1/2 inch holes) to put as a cover over the tank. You're going to want to fill the tank as much as possible with water and you don't want your little one to escape. The cover will help keep him in the tank. It can also be helpful (depending on what light you get) to keep the light out of the tank.

Hope this helps.