turtle

[sergo]

does anyone have experience with red eared slider turtles? my wife found one the size of a quarter and wants to keep it. any suggestions?
didn't really know where to put this so i put it here.

[Fishguy2727]

They are an expensive pet. They require all the equipment from reptiles plus all the equipment from fish. I have seen some pretty good do it yourself setups that cut cost, but it still is not cheap. In Dallas you should be able to keep it outside year round, this will cut a lot of cost. Is that an option?

[wijnands]

Ah, those. Red cheecked turtles they're called over here. Very popular in the 1970s and 1980s often kept in terrible circumstances. You hardly ever see them in this country any more since importing them was outlawed.
Semi aquatic so a tank with some land and some water. They like to sun themselves.

[Only Registered Users Can See Links.] seems a decent place to start reading.

[sergo]

They are an expensive pet. They require all the equipment from reptiles plus all the equipment from fish. I have seen some pretty good do it yourself setups that cut cost, but it still is not cheap. In Dallas you should be able to keep it outside year round, this will cut a lot of cost. Is that an option?yea, i could put it the ditch that is a couple of blocks down from me. that would be the best spot for it.
i've got to talk my wife out of this.

[sergo]

Ah, those. Red cheecked turtles they're called over here. Very popular in the 1970s and 1980s often kept in terrible circumstances. You hardly ever see them in this country any more since importing them was outlawed.
Semi aquatic so a tank with some land and some water. They like to sun themselves.

[Only Registered Users Can See Links.] seems a decent place to start reading.i've been reading up on them some, thanks for the info.

[Fishguy2727]

Where did she get it? I was thinking if you kept it you could keep it outside. If it was captive bred the wild is not the best place for it unfortunately, not that an uninformed pet owner would not be much worse.

[sergo]

Where did she get it? I was thinking if you kept it you could keep it outside. If it was captive bred the wild is not the best place for it unfortunately, not that an uninformed pet owner would not be much worse.a guy at her work found it in the parking lot. i saw it when i went to lunch and it looks like a green quarter with legs, that's how big the little guy is. apparently they named it Sprinter, as they found it zipping across the parking lot and they work at a Freightliner dealership that sells sprinter vans so it just just kind of got stuck with it.

[cocoa_pleco]

That sucks. we cant have turtles here since they carry salmonella

[wijnands]

Huh? What's salmonella got to do with it? Were you planning on eating them?

[Fishguy2727]

Aquatic environments that are not kept clean and house reptiles are one of the best ways to culture salmonella. That was one of the issues that plagued keeping the hatchlings as pets in the '70s. That is why it is illegal to sell turtles under 4" as pets in the U.S. It becomes very easy to transfer to humans when their is a filthy turtle home in the house.

[Stingslider]

Aquatic environments that are not kept clean and house reptiles are one of the best ways to culture salmonella. That was one of the issues that plagued keeping the hatchlings as pets in the '70s. That is why it is illegal to sell turtles under 4" as pets in the U.S. It becomes very easy to transfer to humans when their is a filthy turtle home in the house.

That only applied to people that touch the turtles feces and then eats with their hands. It nothing that washing your hands cannot take care of.

I handled 5 turtles for 6 years and I have been bitten and scratched by more aggressive ones and not once have I contracted Samonella. Your more likely to get from eating improperly washed food. Or even peanut butter.

And the reason why in 70s salmonella outbreak occurred why because of improper care. No filter, small housing, even little kids was picking them up and trying to put them in their mouth.

[sergo]

That only applied to people that touch the turtles feces and then eats with their hands. It nothing that washing your hands cannot take care of.

I handled 5 turtles for 6 years and I have been bitten and scratched by more aggressive ones and not once have I contracted Samonella. Your more likely to get from eating improperly washed food. Or even peanut butter.

And the reason why in 70s salmonella outbreak occurred why because of improper care. No filter, small housing, even little kids was picking them up and trying to put them in their mouth.yea, there's no substitue for common sense.

[Fishguy2727]

It does not have to be as direct as poop to food. The whole environment can be swarming with salmonella. Touching something in the tank or has recently been used in the tank then doing something to expose yourself to it like scratching by your mouth, and bam, you could get it. And not every setup has it. I kept water turtles for about 9 years. I never washed my hands afterwards. I kept the tank clean. I never had any issues. And small children are much more susceptible to it than adults. In the '70s the care was completely unacceptable. There were no filters, water was not changed, and they were children's pets, so they were the ones messing with them.

[octopus44]

I have had a read eared slider for about a year now and i love him. They do need alot of room (about 10 gallons per inch of turtle) and a basking area, but if you are willing to put in the effort a turtle is a great pet to have. Here is a link to a great turtle forum. [Only Registered Users Can See Links.]
The people there are very friendly and knowledgeable.

PS: Never release a red eared slider into the wild because they are not native to the U.S. and often disturb the ecosystem that they are released into.

[hungryhound]

PS: Never release a red eared slider into the wild because they are not native to the U.S. and often disturb the ecosystem that they are released into.

This is untrue. Form the Texas Fish and Wildlife website.

"Life History
Red-eared sliders are Texas's most common aquatic turtles.

Distribution
They range from Indiana to New Mexico down through Texas to the Gulf of Mexico. They are widely distributed throughout Texas except for the far western region."

texas fish and wildlife ([Only Registered Users Can See Links.])

Seeing as Sergo is in Texas. I don't think that there would be a problem with him releasing the wild red eared slider that he found in the wild back into the wild.

[Incredulous_Ed]

I keep a chinese box turtle in a large out door encloure with sprinklers and many, many plants. I The only thing I do to clen it is change the water every day. Can I get sammonella?
The turtle that I have now used to belong to my cousin until she got samonella poisoning (By not washing her hands after handling the turtle). Should I be doing something sepcial to clean the area?

[octopus44]

My mistake. You are correct sliders are native to the U.S.

[hungryhound]

My mistake. You are correct sliders are native to the U.S.

Not a big deal. The information was probably correct for your geographical area.

[S13DWS]

We have Red eared sliders!
Great pets!!!

I wouldnt say they are overly expensive pets to have. They do fine in the cold water but can be in heated water. eat just about anything (Veges, garden snails, worms, fish, turtle food, your fingers if they get too close to the wrong end??)

My dad is a huge enthusiast of turtles (even got a tattoo of on :-S)
He used to have three. Ironically one RAN away.

With the smaller ones be sure not to keep them in a tank with larger turtles as the smaller one will unfortunatly be eaten. I found this out the hard way, I thought my turtle might be big enough to rough it with the bigger ones and now he has a mutilated shell and has stunted his growth.

To tell male from female is easy once they are bigger the males front claws will be quite long (2cm ish)!! females claws are not overly long.

They love to sunbake, our ones even enjoy a careful(you) scratch on the head!

smaller ones need to be carefully handled as their shells are soft and squishy.

Have loads of info for you if you do decide to keep it, I really do enjoy having my pet turtle and my dad really loves his turtles!!