Baby Yellow Bellied Turtle

Question
Hi. My sister just bought my son a turtle from Daytona Beach, FL. The shell is only about 1-inch in circumference. The water is room temperature. The tank it is in is plastic and about a foot long, give or take and inch or two by probably 5-6 inches. I would say that it is less than a foot in depth. There is 1/4 inch gravel and 1/2 water over the gravel. My sister also put some shells she found, probably in the ocean while in FL. We live in GA, so the turtle wasn't in an excessively long car ride. When I asked her the species, her reply was "yellow back something." I can only assume that she meant Yellow Bellied because there is no such turtle I could find on the internet about "yellow back".

Frankly, I don't know the first thing about caring for a turtle. I have been searching online, but all the websites seem to have many variations. Also, I have received some input from a women in Petsmart. All of the information I have received have contradicted one another.

1. How can I tell the gender of my turtle?

2. Do I need a heating lamp?

3. How often should I change the water?

4. Is it better to keep the food in a feeding tray? Or let it float?

5. Is it better to have gravel or not in the tank?

6. How long should I feed my turtle the small pellets provided by the seller (aquatic turtle food)?

7. Is it even okay to feed it the aquatic turtle food, or should I invest in something else?

8. Is there any additional information I need to know to properly care for my turtle?

Answer
Hi Kathy, Glad you are trying to research what you can about this turtle. Not to be rude to the people who work at pet stores but most of them don't know what they are talking about when it comes to caring for reptiles. Some do but others just wing it.

You will want to be sure its a Yellow Belly Slider by looking up pictures and comparing.

For a Yellow Belly Slider the care is Identicle of that of the Red Ear Slider. The best site I have found for Slider information is

http://redearslider.com

Remember the care is the same

1) You wont be able to tell the gender until he/she is at least 4 inches long at which time the male will have long front claws used to attract mates, where the females will be short like the back claws. The Male's Cloaca (anal opening) will be positioned further down the tail near the tip where as the female's cloaca will be closer on the tail near her body.

2) Yes a heating lamp and a land area is positively necessary. You need a land area for them to get up out of the water adn dry out. Without it the turtle can develop medical problems. The heat lamp will keep the dry land area warm enough for them to be up there.

3)Water should be changed as needed and at least every 3 days. Spot cleanign should be done everyday such as removing uneaten food. If you use a fish tank filter then cleaned once a week and as needed with daily spot cleaning

4) The food needs to be placed directly on the top of the water to float. Turtle's can not swallow food without water and eating on land can lead to choking. They dont produce their own saliva so it must be in the water.

5) Do NOT use gravel in the tank, if there is anything smaller then his head in the tank he can eat it and cause impaction which can be deadly. Clean bare bottoms of tanks are fine and is how my turtles are setup. Another option is large river rock bigger then the turtle's head. Tile or linoleum flooring at the bottom looks very nice, usually for the larger tank though when he is older

6) The floating pellets should be fed daily and as many as he can eat in a sitting. Remove any left over. He can eat the floating pellets all his life with a variety of other items. It is rare that a young turtle will eat greens or veggies of any sort but they should be offered. Usually the adults are more interested in such food items. Young turtles are usually more interested in meat items along with their pellets. Small insects (NOTHING FROM YOUR YARD, buy from a pet store), dried krill or dried shrimp from pet store, earthworms (also from a store), or small feeder fish. The link I gave you far above mentions somewhere the items that are safe and unsafe to feed to your turtle. Not all veggies or all meat products are safe to feed.

7)Aquatic turtle food is OK to feed and gives them much of the calcium and nutrients they need. Offer variety though as mentioned above. They get bored with the same food items.

8)

You will need UV lighting made for reptiles. This is extremely important to his health. Found at most reptile related pet stores, this light will need replacing every 6 months to be sure the UV output is still there. UVB lighting is very important but do not buy the coil bulbs use the long flourescent tube UV lights. Not to be confused with black lights or fish tank lights.

Reading up on http://redearslider.com should help you with most of the additional information. It is a very reliable site.

Best of luck
Yexalen