Hi! Introduce yourselves here. :: New to turtles

[regina]

Hi I am a new turtle owner. I have spent the last couple of years noticing a mistreated turtle every holiday when I visit a relative. This year I couldn't take it any more and asked if they would give me the turtle. So now I am the proud owner of a redearslider. Based on what I have read on this site I can see that he (or she?) has been living in terrible conditions the past 5 years or so. I want to get some supplies because he definitely needs a habitat...right now he is in a small tank and only has about one inch of water! Any suggestions to help me get started with the habitat appreciated. I am on limited income and wasn't really expecting this but am definitely glad I got him out of there--so any suggested on where to find used or affordable tanks and other parts of the habitat would also be a great help.

Thanks

[emma]

Welcome to the forum! There are many places you can get cheap tanks. You could try www.craigslist.org or www.ebay.com or www.glasscages.com ... OR you can try looking around at petstores near you.
I got a lot of my items of www.bigalsonline.com . Everything there seems to be very cheap. It really seems to be a great site to order from.
How big is this turtle? If it is over 4" then you will be able to tell if it is a male or female. Also, another thing to remember is that you need 10 gallons of water per inch of shell.
Look through this for some info on the costs and items you will need to purchase- http://redearslider.com/startup.html . Owning a RES is not cheap!