im not sure if my turtles are eating

Question
Hi Mark,
My question for you is is: About five weeks ago I bought my son two red ear sliders. One male and one female and at 4 months old. The shell of my male is 1" 1/4 in length and 1" 1/2 in width. The shell of my female 1" 1/4 in length and 1" 1/4 in width. I have been feeding them the food that came with the turtles, but I don't think they are eating because 1: I haven't seen them eat. 2: I can tell the food has dissolved into their water. Now should I been concerned or is this normal when they are this young.
My female is not as active at all now as she was when I first got them. My male is just fine. This makes me worry!
Please help!

Answer
This is not normal. I have a feeling you have gotten some bad or old information. For example...

1. It is against federal law to sell turtles under 4" long. Shops that break this law rarely offer good care advice.

2. Good turtle food should not dissolve in water.

3. There is almost no way to know the sex of Red-ear Sliders until they are sexually mature at about 4" long (shell length). You can guess the sex based on the temperature they were incubated at, but even that is only about 60-75% reliable and almost no bulk breeder bothers to track this.

I have to wonder about things like- what is it being fed, what size is the tank, what is the water temp, etc.

You can get some great info at http://www.redearslider.com but some starter info would be...
- A good starter tank for 2 baby turtles is 20 gallons, but they will outgrow it in a year or so.
- Heat the water to about 75-80F with a decent submersible heater. They won't eat in cold water.
- Light the habitat for about 12 hours a day.
- Offer about 1/2 good brand pellets (Reptomin for small turtles), and supplement it with live or frozen/thawed blood worms, small shrimp, etc. You can also do small bits of beef heart or cooked chicken

Good luck!