RED EARED SLIDER AND PAINTED TURTLE CARE GUIDE

what is up guys it is the turtle girl welcome to the channel or welcome back to the channel today we're going to be talking about slider and painted turtle care alright so before we get started really quickly I just want to say first of all why I'm grouping these two species together is because sliders and painted czar actually native to much of these same areas and so for that reason they're habitat and care requirements are very similar and so much of what applies to one species also applies to the other so for that reason they're being grouped together also I wanted to mention that turtle care across the board for a wide variety of species of turtles is very similar and a lot of the same principles apply so I have done a general turtle care video which you might want to watch before you watch this so I'm not gonna go into those basic guidelines today today we're just talking about specifically painted turtles and slider turtles so let's get started alright so the first thing we have to ask when looking at what is the best way to care for an animal is where is it native to and what is its natural habitat the reason we asked this question is because once we know where an animal is from what its natural habitat looks like then we can go ahead and try to replicate that natural environment as closely as possible in captivity so painted turtles and slider turtles are both native to North America the slider turtle comes from the central to southeastern area of the United States extending a little bit into Mexico and the painted turtle goes all the way from the east coast to the west coast just going just into southern Canada and so with such a wide range of habitats sliders and painted turtles are both very very adaptable to many different conditions and so this is a good thing to know because that means that in captivity they're able to survive and even thrive in a wide variety of conditions now as for these sizes that these turtles can grow to with these sliders the red ear slider the Cumberland slider the yellow-bellied slider females will grow to about 12 to 13 inches with males being a few inches smaller than that and with the painted turtles there are actually four different subspecies western middling and southern and eastern the largest subspecies the females can get to about nine inches and with these smallest subspecies the southern painted females might grow to about six inches keep in mind that males are almost always smaller than the females at least by a couple inches and so that's something to consider when thinking about how much space you want to dedicate to a turtle tank speaking of tank size I'm sure you've heard of the ten gallons per inch of shell rule for Turtles that definitely applies here one thing to keep in mind though is that these Turtles absolutely love to swim and are very very active and so if you can provide them more than ten gallons per inch of shell they would definitely appreciate that and will utilize every interest space that you have in your aquarium and another thing to keep in mind is that these turtles are also very good swimmers so you have no reason to fear with filling the tank all the way up the water depth does not only have to be half way full you can fill it up all the way so long as they are not a baby turtle that is still trying to figure out how to swim if your turtle has previously kept in water that was only halfway full in the tank then you can slowly increase that just to make sure that there are muscles will have a chance to get used to that deeper water depth so just increase it an inch or two at a time going slowly so that their muscles can continue to build up and they can be strong enough swimmers but once they are comfortable in deeper water they will use all that space to swim so give them the biggest tank that you have space for and the ten gallons per inch of shell rule is a great place to start second thing filtration so another thing to know about these turtles is that they produce a lot of waste pretty much like any turtles but just keep in mind that you will need to be providing a lot of filtration most people recommend two to three times the amount of water volume in your tank so if you have 20 gallons of water in your tank you're gonna want at least a filter or filters rated for 40 gallons or more potentially even up to 60 for more on the topic of filtration of other videos on that so you can definitely check those out now temperatures so for these turtles like I said in the beginning they're very hearty and adaptable so with adult turtles really room temperature can be sufficient for them as long as that temperature is not dropping below like 65 degrees for baby turtles and juveniles you do want to keep that a little bit warmer because it helps protect their immune system remember turtles are cold-blooded so their internal temperature is regulated by the temperatures around them so put a here on your baby and juvenile turtles keep them it may be 76 to 78 degrees so that they will be able to thrive and then once they're adults you can allow them to be at room temperature and so that is for heating in the aquarium now on to a very important topic which is basking areas so Peja turtles and slider turtles love to bask they're actually part of a category of turtles that are known as basking turtles because they spend a lot of time out of the water sunning themselves on a rock on a log and absorbing those rays of sunshine and so for these Turtles I definitely recommend providing a nice sturdy good basking area personally I prefer above tank basking areas like the one you see here in my Diamondback Terrapin tank these are basking areas that will sit above the tank and have a ramp going into the water so you can fill the tank all the way up but also have a nice large area for your turtle to come out of the water and fast you will want to have your UVB bulbs and heat bulbs up there as always so definitely get some of those for your slider or paint a turtle now as for the temperature in the basking area you should have hotspot areas of up to maybe 90 to 93 degrees all the way down to the low 80s so let your basking area be warm make sure your turtle is basking frequently a good sign of turtles health is that it is going up to bask but although do keep in mind especially when you first get these Turtles they might be kind of shy and unused to their environment around them so it might take them a while to bask so don't be stressed if within the first couple of days or even the first couple of weeks if you don't see your turtles basking it's possible that they're just getting used to their new environment and have not had the confidence to go up into a basking area or that they're just basking when you're not seeing it and immediately slide into the water when they hear you coming that's actually where sliders get their name is when they're basking when they get scared they will just slide into the water their sliders so that is what I have to say about basking areas for sliders and paint it's alright so we've talked about tank size filtration heating lighting basking areas now we have to talk about diet so these turtles are omnivores they feed on fish insects roughage and greens that they find in the water and so in captivity I recommend feeding them a variety of different well formulated turtle pellets I will link a few that I use personally in the description below one thing to note is that the juveniles and baby turtles of the slider and painted turtle species are more carnivorous and need a little bit more protein in their diet to account for their growing bodies and so maybe look into feeding a specifically formulated turtle pellet for hatchling or juvenile turtles and as they become adults they gradually also become more herbivorous and so you can start introducing greens things like romaine lettuce red leaf lettuce I will link a spreadsheet to some safe vegetables and even fruits that you can feed your turtles so keep in mind that once they're adults you definitely don't want to be feeding them too much protein because they are prone to having retained scutes if you feed them too much protein and they can grow too fast more on that in other videos that I've done but just make sure you're feeding them a well-rounded diet all right so now with all the technical stuff out of the way let's talk about personality and some of the personality traits of these species so both paintings and sliders tend to be very very personable they can learn to recognize you and will swim up to the glass to beg for food or just to interact they tend to be very outgoing and not shy so if you're looking for a turtle that you will often see out and about just swimming around doing its thing these turtles are great options because you will definitely see them swimming around the tank basking doing whatever begging so they are a great active turtle they can be destructive when it comes to decorations so if your goal is a beautifully aquascape tank with everything always in perfect position then maybe a slider or a pain it isn't for you honestly probably most turtles aren't for you because most turtles will rearrange their habitat they might try to eat anything in their tank that looks like potentially food so make sure that anything in your tank is gonna be safe for the turtle and then as for turtle tank mates and keeping them with other turtles in my opinion although in the wild they can be gregarious in captivity most people just don't have the space for each turtle to establish its own territory and feel secure in its own space and that's where the potential for fighting breaks out and for that reason I prefer to house these Turtles as only one to a tank people have had success with Co having them with members of their own species but I do advise that if you are gonna try that proceed with extreme caution because aggression can be a very very serious matter and can escalate very quickly but in my opinion both pages and sliders don't necessarily need friends to be enriched and there are other ways that you can do that for them and then as for fish tank mates this is very much a hit-or-miss because in the wild they do see fish as prey and so just know that any fish you are going to put in the tank have the potential of being eaten and hunted I have found I've had the most success with fish that are either small and fast or fish that will hold their own against the turtle so like maybe a more aggressive type of fish such as a cichlid all right so now before we wrap up really quickly let's just talk about life span and how long these animals can live and so there are actually a wide variety of estimates out there on the Internet I have personally only had my turtle for three years maybe four and I adopted him when he was 10 so that would make him 13 14 maybe and so what you basically need to know is that these turtles can live upwards of 20 years potentially to 40 years you need to know that they'll be around for a long time so what I'm trying to tell you here is if you want to get a pet turtle please seriously think about how long of a commitment this will be and that this animal will be around for many many years so please don't make the decision to get a turtle lightly because that and we'll be relying on you for it to care all right so that is all I have to say about sliders and to Turtles I hope I didn't miss anything if I did definitely just leave a comment in the comment section down below if this video helped you feel free to drop a thumbs up down below don't forget to subscribe if you haven't already and I will see you guys next Friday thank you so much for watching and have a turtle awesome day bye bye

Channel: The Turtle Girl

Views: 206,009

Rating: 4.9416695 out of 5

Keywords: red eared slider care, red eared slider turtle care, aquatic turtle care, painted turtle care, turtle care, basic turtle care, turtle care for beginners, turtle care guide, turtle care sheet, pet turtle care, turtle care red eared slider, how to care for turtles, best pet turtle, why turtles make terrible pets, turtle care tips, how to care for a turtle, turtles as pets, the turtle girl, painted turtle, turtle tank setup, how to set up turtle tank, turtle tank 2019

Id: ynGT2yHS_-0

Length: 11min 18sec (678 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 26 2019