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7 Day Vacation and Turtlesitters

Posted:
Sun Jun 05, 2011 6:15 pm
by xfallwithmexo
Hey all, I'm going on vacation next Saturday and I'm nervous about the condition of my turtles. I have my grandparents coming over to the house every day to feed them and check on them. I'm going to preportion their pellets this way they don't over feed them. Only thing is they'll have to get them out of their tank and into the feeding tank. They'll have to turn on the lights, but that won't be too hard. Turtles are tuff right? They'll be just fine?
I haven't seen too many threads about people going away, just a thread on automatic feeders, so sorry if this is a thread you've all seen 10 times
Re: 7 Day Vacation and Turtlesitters

Posted:
Mon Jun 06, 2011 8:35 am
by VeipaCray
You can also get some red rosie feeder fish from your local pet store and toss them in the tank. They cost like 10 cents each. If your turtles get hungry and your grandparents forget to feed your turtles... they can just go hunting.
I'd be more worried about your grandparents handling the turtles and possibly dropping them. Turtles are tough compared to fish. Might be better to just let your grandparents feed your turtles right in the main tank. I'd rather deal with a possible water change or a filter cleaning when I got home from vacation than a phone call about a dropped turtle with a cracked shell.
An automatic feeder could be another good solution for you. The eheim auto feeders work the best. Fill the hopper with food, slide the trap door thing open wide enough to release the amount of food you want and set the feeder to feed once a day. They are battery operated and not super expensive.
Re: 7 Day Vacation and Turtlesitters

Posted:
Mon Jun 06, 2011 9:26 am
by SINI5T3R
You actually could just let your turtles go the week with no food. they can go a long time with no food just like a snake and since they have a slow metabolism they would prob just barley be pooping out the food you gave them before you left lol. or as cray said, get some feeder fish and let them have at it. go buy like 60 fish for like 10 bucks or something. and as far as feeding in a new tank i would also suggest feeding in the main tank. even i have problems holding my res sometimes and i do it all the time. and you dont wnat your grandparents getting bit by accident

Re: 7 Day Vacation and Turtlesitters

Posted:
Mon Jun 06, 2011 7:11 pm
by xfallwithmexo
These are little turtles I don't even think they're big enough for fish, I've tried before and the fish are still in there with em about 3 months later now. I'm going to leave 3 plants in their for them. They love the plants and I'll have my grandparents come over and feed them pellets once or twice during the week. Thanks for the tips! I stupidly never even considered them being dropped
Re: 7 Day Vacation and Turtlesitters

Posted:
Mon Jun 06, 2011 10:57 pm
by steve
You can preportion the pellets in a pillbox. The lights aren't on timers?
You can still have your grandparents check them everyday even if they don't have to feed them.