Slider turtle prefer not to be in water

Question
I have more than one question, first does the turtle eyes suppose to look puffy and he cries all the time when he is put in his tank. My sister bought John K. Turtle for my sons 8th birthday which I was against but I care for him. pet store turtle. We set his home just like it was in the store 50 gallon take 35 gallons of water the filters and all that jazz. he was not happy with that so we put less water just enough to cover his shell and he's ok with that but every morning when I come down stairs he whines til I put him on the floor. I give him edible plants and fish sometimes he have a little fruit depending on his mood he will only eat pellets if I don't feed him other things for 2 days. I think that he is spoiled like the children. Is this normal for turtles.

Answer
The slider is not the easiest pet to care for- since you have to provide a complete environment to simulate its natural home.

They like big tanks of clean water, with places to crawl out on to bask in the warm sun and dry off. They want water temps that are closely reglated- but allow then hot and cool places, and a choice of sunny and shady spots.

Their diet will usually consist of live fish of a certain size, along with worms, bugs, and some plants. As they get bigger, the plants will become a bigger part of the diet- but lettuce, hamburger, ant and fly parts, and fruit are not real healthy for them.

An eye infection is a common result of basic care problems. See http://www.redearslider.com/index_health_3.html

It might help to find and review some good care sites. A couple good ones for Red-ear sliders include:

http://www.redearslider.com/
http://tortoise.org/general/watcare.html

I applaud your efforts! As I said, this is not an easy pet- even though a lot of people say it is.

Once you provide a good enclosure with the right temps, lighting, size, filtration/cleaning program, basking set-up, diet, and so on, the turtle should show solid improvements... after a possible period of sulking.