Hi! Introduce yourselves here. :: About my Red ear slider

[gary]

Hello there,
I am new here I am glad to be a part of this forum Steve is so helpful, his good communication pulled me to this forum.

I am from INDIA and here, there is no one who can tell me about my pet / . So, I have joined this forum.
As I am new here so there is too much to ask:-
1. I need to know the gender of my pet, I read some forums and blogs, and I read if it has a long tail and sharp nails then it is a MALE so am I right here?
2. I got him, almost 5-6 years ago, he is grown now , his weight is 1.2KG's, but just by weight I can't determine whether he is healthy or not! SO how can I be sure of his health status?
3. He use to leave peel of his shells in a month so is that normal?
4. What is the maximum, minimum, and average life time of red ear slider?
5. I use to keep him in the water for the whole day, and in the night I puts him in a BIG box for 12 hours to sleep, is that good!
6. One last thing, are Red Ear Slider & Orange Ear Slider are same breed or they are different?

thanks alot

Gaurav

[steve]

Welcome to the forum (finally)! We have a few members from India and Southeast Asia, so hopefully they can provide more insight.

Some quick answers:

1. The turtle needs to be about 10cm before you can tell. By this time, male characteristics should be obvious and it sounds like you do have a
2. Weight alone is hard to factor in. How does the shell look? Is the turtle fat (skin flabs out when he goes into his shell)?
3. Shedding skin and scutes is normal. Once a month seems a bit frequent.
4. Tough question... very many unknowns to factor in, including genetics. I would expect about 10-20 years but so many have had healthy ones go too soon. Some have reported turtle ages in the 40's-60's-80's.
5. It shouldn't have much impact though it might add a bit more stress to the turtle from being handled and a bit more work for you.
6. There is no species of Orange Ears, but many RES will have ears that are orange color... some are more yellow.

[gary]

thanks Steve, I will try to upload some of pictures of my turtle so as you can have a look at its shell.

Gary

[penelope]

Welcome to the forum!
I have a feeling that between all of us, you will get your questioned answered