painter turtles

Question
how much water do they need? and dirt
how many times do they need to eat a day..... and what do they eat?
how big of an area do u need for them?
can they be inside pets or do they have to be out side?


Answer
Hi Aug, Painted turtles are primarily aquatic so the larger percentage of their enclosure should be water with a smaller area available where they can leave the water, dry out and bask. The size depends on the size of your turtle but as a general rule, 10 gal of water for every inch of shell length. So a 4 inche long turtle would need about a 40 gallon tank to have adequate space to swim.  Usually a platform or shelf is added to one end of the tank to provide a basking area, your heat light should be placed above this area. There are commercial turtle basking platforms available that are easy to use and work well. Turtles require a fairly strong filtration system to keep the water clean. They do well on a combination of turtle pellets like Reptomin and also fish, worms, shrimp and some leafy greens. Turtles love to eat and will learn to beg for food but feed them only once per day.
An outside pond set-up would be ideal for them provided it is protected from predators. I have included a couple links on painteds but any of the large amounts of info that is written for red ear slider turtles is also applicable to painteds.

http://www.chelonia.org/Articles/chrysemyscare.htm

http://animal-world.com/encyclo/reptiles/turtles/WesternPaintedTurtle.php