Red Ear Housing Questions

[acpart]

I have some red ear questions so I know how to help out some poorly cared for turtles in the best and easiest way. I am not a turtle person (and don't particularly plan to be) but I feel for any animal not being treated right. I'm a home care therapist and the other day I went to see a patient. They have 2 red ears, one looks like a hatchling and is about 2" and the other is about 4-6" (I didn't get a really good look and had to concentrate on my work, rather than the turtles). The thing that bothered me the most (and will certainly bother all of you) is that the smaller one was being kept in one of those tiny cricket keepers --the ones that are about 5"x3". The bigger one was in the medium cricket keeper, about 12"x7" with no place to get out of the water. I can't take these turtles from them (and don't want them) and there are big limits as to what I can provide for them. The family is primarily Chinese speaking (and I'm not) and relatively unsophisticated. I offered to bring them one of my extra 10 gallon tanks but after going home and reading a couple of care sheets on red ears, I'm pretty sure that it won't be adequate for the bigger one; I can't just go out and buy a 20 or 40 gallon tank for them. So I figure the best I can do for them (I'm going back to see the patient the week after next) is to get some kind of plastic container(s) and one of those turtle docks. I will also be bringing the care sheets I printed out. I know this isn't going to be ideal but it's better than what they've got. My biggest question is whether people keep these turtles in plastic tubs, and if so, what size do you recommend? How high should the sides be so the turtle doesn't climb out? Are there any other easy to obtain things you recommend? I will most likely be paying for this myself, so it can't get too expensive.
Any advice appreciated, but please realize that I'm limited in what I can do.

Aliza

 

[lil_katiedan]

Aliza,

It's great that you care about these turtles enough to want to help them out. Here are my suggestions and tips:


Turtles grow to fit the container (lake, pond etc.) they are in, just because the little one is 2" doesn't not mean it's a hatchling. I've seen turtles that are around 2-3 years old but are still only a couple of inches due to being kept in a small tank. The family might or might not know this, although if you were to give them a bigger tank/bin the turtles will grow rapidly to fit whatever you provide them with. My advice would be to give them the 10gal for the larger one (this would work if it's about 4") and they can then change put the little one over into the critter keeper that the larger one was previously housed in.

Turtles no matter how small or big need to bask. Both enclosures need rocks on one side that enable the turtle to retreat from the water. Above the rocks they need a UVB light. These can sometimes be expensive so using a mercury vapor bulb might be a better solution as they tend to be cheaper.

I hope this helps, if you have any more questions feel free to ask. Good luck!

 

[Sandra]

I don't know if this will help, but in this thread there is a pic of my tank, which I believe to be an appropiate enclosure (excluding the gravel, that has been retired from the tank because he ate it).
http://www.geckoforums.net/showthread.php?t=2042

There you can see the UVB light, the dock, the filter... It may help you to ilustrate the caresheet.

Ps. I'm not a big fan of turtles either, as many people that keep red sliders. They just seem to come into our lives!!!

 

[acpart]

Thanks for your responses. I got a floating turtle platform thing today and will bring them one of my 10 gallon tanks, as soon as I figure out which one can hold water. If I felt that these people could cope with a lot of supplies and information I would invest more. The best I will be able to do is to get them a larger tank and a platform. I don't think they can manage lights and filters, although if they are responsive to my first offering, I'll try to get them a little more. I will also print the picture of the tank and show it to them. My question remains, if the larger turtle is 6", is it better for it to have a 10 gallon tank or a larger plastic tub? If the plastic tub seems like the better option, what size, and especially, what depth would be best?

Aliza

 

[lil_katiedan]

I'm not really sure fo the sizes of tubs that are available. You could just get a 12" high one and then depending one wha is available pick the one that looks like it's enough room for the turtle to swim. Turtles aren't great climbers as long as there's nothing for them to "hold" on to. The slick sides of the bin should make it hard for them for get out.

 

[acpart]

Epilogue

I brought over the turtle stuff for these people today. I got a 63 liter plastic tub (12" high x 21" x 15") and one of those floating climbing plastic log things and printed a care sheet for them. The larger one, about 6" it turns out they've had for 5 years and the smaller one, about 1 1/2" for about 2 years. They were very appreciative and when I left were figuring out which table to put the tub on. I mentioned lighting and filtration briefly, but I think it's better to provide the amount of change they can handle rather than overwhelming them with too much information which may result in them doing nothing. I know the care still isn't optimal, but it's better than what they had before. I won't get to find out what happens because I discharged the patient today, but I consider this to be $16 well spent.

Aliza

 

[lil_katiedan]

Awesome Aliza. Maybe sometime you could call and check up on them, I'm sure they wouldn't mind .

 

[Ricky G.]

turtles do not grow to the size of there tanks if a turtle is kept in a small container it well grow deformities and die thats why those turtle lagoons are also called "death bowls" a res if will grow to be about 9-12 inches long thurtles should have one gallon per inch so if you have a 12 inch long turtle you will need a 120 gallon tank if its 9 inches a 90 gallon and so on also turtles need excelent light uva and uvb are requierd for proper growth and alos filtration must be excelent the filter capacity should be double the tank so say you have a 75 gallon tank you should have 150 gallons of filtration