painted turtle baby

Question
we found a baby painted turtle in the middle of our lawn . our property backs on a wooded area with a conservtion area including stream abd bogs. We have small pnds with koi on our property , What can I do with the turtle . I dont want to pet it but also don't want to let it perish.  

Answer
Hi Leona!
Aww, a painted turtle, very cute! You must have a lovely yard, a stream and bog behind your house! awesome! Also cool about the conservation.

When you said, "I dont want to pet it but also don't want to let it perish" did you mean you didn't want it as a pet, or you didn't want to physically touch it??

If you wanted to, you could keep it as a pet. All you would need to do is get the correct set up in your tank, which is a necessity to keeping a turtle alive and healthy. If this is the option you want to take, then you should consider buying a painter turtle book to make sure everything that is needed for it's care is done. If this is the option you choose, send me another message for some tips on tank set up and feeding.

Another thing you could do is to keep it for a year or two until it gets bigger, so it has a better chance of surviving to adulthood and breeding with other wild turtles. If this is the option you choose, you will still need to buy all of the stuff that you would to raise them. This can be a really fun experience, especially when you release it into the wild and remember how little it was when you first found it and how you helped it. The difference is, you will need to feed it differently, and act differently, than you would if you kept it as a pet.

If you choose as a pet, you would want to handle it a lot so it doesn't bite, and feed it some food that you buy at a store (and occassionslly a few fish). But if you wanted to release it, you would feed pretty much only fish, and handle it as little as possible. You wouldn't want the turtle to learn to eat from your hand and eat fake food if you were going to release it, you need to feed live fish so it learns to hunt. You can also leave some raw meat on it's basking area if you aren't sure it's catching enough food yet, but make sure it at least starts learning to catch food, and you can even hide food around it's environment (don't leave the food in the same spot every day or it will learn to go there for food). You can also feed it dead or living bugs you find around the house, like if you swat a fly with a fly swater or if you squish a mosquito on the wall. Crickets are also good for calcium, which you can buy at the pet store. If you wanted, you could dig up earth worms from the yard as well.

Another thing you could do is let it go in one of your koi ponds and just leave it in there, but you would still need to buy small feeder fish and your koi will probably get eaten(if you have any in there). Also, there needs to be a very shallow part, and also some rocks for it to climb on and bask in. I woud suggest right in the middle, especially if you would want to try to keep it in there, but there are no guarantees it will stay in there.

The last thing you could do is to let the turtle back go and let nature take it's course.  If this is what you want to do, then let it go in one of the boggy areas, just make sure there are some minnows or other small fish for it to eat. If you see other turtles basking around, then its definately a good spot. Make sure there is shallow water (babies can't swim well and need to learn), and don't put it in a creek that has fast moving water or anything like that (it won't be able to hunt or swim). It would learn on it's own to hunt, parent turtles don't raise their young.

Which ever choice you make is okay, there aren't any wrong choices. Whatever you feel is right to do is what you should do, whether you want to keep it or release it or something in between.

Good luck! I hope my info has helped you make a choice that's right for you and the little turtle. Send me back a message to let me know how things are going!
Best wishes, Chelsey