Other Turtle Discussion :: Safe to get a new turtle mate?

[memarruda]

Hello, there,
For the past 6 years my two female sliders lived in harmony until one of them died...due to a shell injury that caused internal damage. Now my remaining red slider seems depressed. We take her out and play with her a lot, but when we leave her alone in her tank, she is often looking very dejected, sitting on the bottom with her head out and lying on the ground. Is it safe to go out and get a new female slider?? Would it be safe to get a baby or should I get an adult? (There's not a lot of competition in my tank). Somebody please advise.
Thanks!!

[steve]

Welcome to the site. Females can become as aggressive as males, so I would suggest you stick with the one you have unless you have the means to keep an manage separate tanks.

[memarruda]

So, turtles aren't necessarily social creatures who need companions? Are they okay being all alone?

[Diamondbacks4Life]

So, turtles aren't necessarily social creatures who need companions? Are they okay being all alone?

Correct, they are perfectly fine being alone. Most people end up having to force their turtles to be housed alone as they start attacking the other turtle causing injuries. If you search the forum their are tons of topics about people saying their turtle started attacking the other one.

[amwassil]

Although turtles are relatively solitary animals, they are not hermits. Even in their natural wild habitat turtles socially interact with each other. Your turtle interacted with a turtle companion for 6 years, so it's not surprising that she misses that companion and interaction. While it's all well and good to say turtles are perfectly fine being alone, your turtle has never been alone until now and that is a BIG change in her life. If she had lived alone since you purchased her as a hatchling it would be different. YOU would have been her sole companion and interaction. But that's not the case.

Older turtles are more difficult to cohabit with a new stranger of any age/size. It's not impossible, but would require a serious commitment of time and energy on your part supervising the initial introduction and subsequent time together. You couldn't just throw a second turtle into the tank and expect anything other than a dead or injured turtle, or two. Likely, your best chance of success would be to house the second turtle in it's own tank then set up a third "day tank" where the two turtles could be together under constant supervision, starting out for very short periods of time and slowly increasing the time together as the aggression subsided. There's no guarantee this would work either.

You might have better success cheering up your turtle by introducing a couple of fish big enough not to be eaten easily. Gold fish get pretty big but I have no idea where you could purchase larger ones as I've only ever seen the small ones for sale. Your turtle would eat small ones. This might mean you'd have to get a bigger tank but the fish would provide stimulation for the turtle.

Hope this helps.