turtle wont eat

Question
I brought a new baby red erared slider home about two to three days ago and she hasn't eaten a bit.. I'm a bit worried.. can you help me ?

Answer
Kathya,  These are such kool little guys. Unfortunately you didn't say how you were keeping him as in tank size,heat,filtration,and lighthing.Too young to sex prob , but I will tell you that in the males the tail tends to be long and thin and the females short and fat,and as your baby grows so will the fingernails if it is female much longer than males. Room is a necessity they grow pretty rapidly.Don't worry about the not eating yet. The new noises , voices, surroundings is alot to soak in. They have a wide variety of foods they can eat which we will get into later right now a baby water turtle pellet should be fine.It definitely needs a drying dock . Whether  you but the ones at the petshops that kinda suction cup to the side or you build one from drift wood from the shop or larger stone from outside (that you have bleached for 2 days then boiled to take care of any parasites that may be present. They need this to dry off and rest. Now lighthing. You should have a cage top not a hood so you get air flow and your lighthing in the right spots to be more successful. I would definately get the double light fixture that holds 2 lights. You are going to need 2 lights one will be a UVA the other will be a UVB. You will an them UVA over the turtledock depending how close to turtles the lights are the lower the wattage.I would try to keep them at least 6 inches away from light go with a lower wattage like maybe a 15 watt.  This is for heat it also helps them create vitamin D-3 that is turned into calcium. On the other side over the water I would run a UVB at about 40 watts or adjust to environment to make sure they get all the UV lighting they need for health. AWAYS have temp strip on tank. I would go with a twenty high tank. If Its in a small tank for now put it outside once in awhile since weather  is warm now. Do not put him in a window as the glass filters the ultra violet rays he needs to grow. I would definitely recommend setting it up like this soon. I would definately reccomend a filtration system of some kind and I would probably go with a submersable filter made for turtle tanks, Thru also make heaters just for turtles too!!!! Tetra puts oth of these out and so do some other good companies. As it grows what I do is make a turtle lasagna. A layer of mustard greens, albacore tuna,bok choy,and some romaine lettuce . I let it get almostm frozen the cut into small squares to be broken off later. I also would not feed it in the tank it lives in if possible. Get a nice square rubber or plastic dishpan and ohil to the same temp or close make sure your its deep enough for the turtle to swallow water as it eats or it can't eat it willchoke trying.Gice them abit and it will prob poop for you ...lol Keeping your tank cleaner. This is not a handleable kind of pet so make sure the kids aren't playing with or touching it right now...also if they do their hands MUST be sanatized before and after for the saftey of both of them. You can get somenella from turtles but if you take care of it correctly you shouldn't have prob wit that. So just hang in there.....make sure the pellet is for BABY turtle or try some brine shrimp of lettuce rt now. If you have any other questions feel free to ask ...Good Luck,Tina   Oh by the way I also put a layer of calcium you can buy at the petshop in my lasagna for them.