Yellow belly Slider Turtle

Question
Hello Jeannie,
  My daughter and I just returned from the pet store where she purchased a young(I assume) Y.B.S. turtle and all accessories. The female turtle (name; Tanner)was placed in a box and the ride home was no more than 20 minutes. All the way home she was very active and trying to escape the box. We arrive home and get right to work setting up her new habitat. She "Tanner" was out of the water at the most for 45 mins. She is now retracted completely in her shell and my daughter is going to pieces thinking she is, or has died. I placed her in her new tank on her dock, back end in the water and front end not hoping for some reaction and got nothing.
   Please respond with some advice to save me from going to tears also.
  Thank you very much for your time, patiently waiting your response. Donald Davis

Answer
Hi Don,

She may simply be stressed.  Try touching a back foot and see if you get a reaction.  If not, leave her for a few hours and check again.  A dead turtle is pretty obvious after a while.  I hope she's okay!  If not, rest assured that you did nothing wrong--a healthy turtle would not have died just from a car ride.  Unfortunately, cheaper species of turtles are often bred and kept in less than ideal conditions before sale, so they're not always very healthy.

Since you bought her at a pet store, I'm going to guess that you were probably given incorrect care information and may have bought improper supplies.  I'll link more detailed information for you, but here's the basics:

1)  Roomy tank.  Turtles need a lot of room.  Standard pet store protocol seems to be to recommend a 20 gallon tank no matter what, but that size is only appropriate for a hatchling (2").  An adult YBS will need at least 60 gallons, and 75 would be better.  Having a large enough tank goes a very long way toward keeping a turtle healthy.  

2)  Good filtration.  Excellent water quality is vital.  You should have a good filter rated for at least twice the capacity of the tank.  Crowded tanks and poor water quality are the two main reasons for shell and skin problems.  It's much easier to maintain proper conditions than to try to fix fungus, shell rot, etc.

3)  Adequate heat and UVB.  Proper basking and water temperatures are important so that the turtle will bask, swim, and eat normally.  The basking area (under the light) should be 88-90 degrees, with the water 76-78.  You need a 10-15 degree difference between water and land to encourage the turtle to swim and bask.  You also need a source of UVB (not UV or UVA), which means a specialty reptile bulb.  The two brands I recommend are ZooMed Powersun (combo heat/UVB) or Reptisun 10.0 (tube bulb, UVB only).  UVB is what allows a turtle to metabolize calcium, which is obviously important for healthy shell and bone, especially for hatchlings and juveniles.

4)  Good varied diet.  Pellets are a good based, but you also need to offer a variety of animal protein and greens/veggies.  The links will have a good list for you.  Also put a piece of cuttlebone in the tank so the turtle can nibble on it for extra calcium as necessary.

I'm trying not to overwhelm you, but I do suggest reading over the linked pages.  Keeping turtles isn't difficult once you know what you're doing, but having them set up correctly is more than half the battle.  Good luck, and please post back if you need more help.

http://www.austinsturtlepage.com/Care/cs-yellowbelly.htm
http://www.chelonia.org/Articles/trachemyscare.htm
http://www.austinsturtlepage.com/Care/care.htm
http://www.austinsturtlepage.com/Care/waterquality.htm
http://www.austinsturtlepage.com/Articles/filtration.htm
http://www.austinsturtlepage.com/Care/housing.htm

www.redearslider.com is another good site--geared toward RES, but the information is mostly also applicable to YBS.