turtle talk

[patches2593]

ok so i found a turtle on the side of the road. a baby. its a red-bellied cooter.

we have it in a plastic tank with pond water and sand from the pond.

what should we feed him?

can we give him turtle food?
does he need a lamp or heat source?

the main question is;
can we use poland spring water for the water instead of the pond water cause its pond water and i want to use something else. what kind/type of water do people regurely use for their turtles?

 

[MiniLopHop]

You can use tap water as long as you put a dechlorinator in it. They sell a turtle specific one that also adds calcium and it's cheaper. If you are going to keep him long term, I suggest the largest tank you can afford because you will need heavy duty filtration. Turtles tend to soil their water quickly.

He will need a place to get out of the water, like a floating dock. You can feed floating turtle sticks.

 

[patches2593]

thanks sooo much. we have a dock too

but can ijust use poland spring water? my crabs use it for the same reason (badness of chlorine and chemical stuff)

 

[MiniLopHop]

Sure, bottled water is more expensive, but it won't hurt them at all.

 

[degrassi]

Is there a reason you collected him out of the wild? Is he injured?

 

[PaGal]

I found an injured turtle once on my property. I then located a nearby wildlife rehabilitator. I was told by then that very little beyond being hit by a vehicle can kill a turtle. This one was hit by a gas company pick up. I was asked to pick up the turtle once it was well and to release it where I had found it. They told me that a turtle will spend the rest of it's life trying to return to where it came from.

I did return it. I would carefully look into the care this type of turtle needs as some of them can need very specific conditions to live in.

 

[Nancy McClelland]

Nothing to add, except, pictures please.

 

[patches2593]

Nancy McClelland wrote:

Nothing to add, except, pictures please.

pics of the turtle?

 

[patches2593]

degrassi wrote:

Is there a reason you collected him out of the wild? Is he injured?

he was in the middle of the road almost killed. we are going to ask our local petstore what to do. i made this post just to have background info and what to do until i get a hold of someone who can do soemthing

 

[PaGal]

Sorry I did not think of it yesterday. A good site to check out that usually has a lot of good info is kingsnake.com They cover more than just turtles but I have noticed that the reptile and amphibian section seems to have more memebers and more info. A word of caution...be wary of advice from pet stores, not all of them know what they are talking about.

 

[patches2593]

i know, trust me. but the pet store we go to, the owners and me are very close friends and they know what they are talking about for sure

 

[patches2593]

thank you anyways