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Hi all, my husband and I just got our first pet, Toby. We love this website and it has helped us with so many questions. Toby is about 2 months old, we got him when he was about the size of a half dollar and now he is about 2 1/2 inches.

We got him from some people selling on the side of the road so we did not get told how much care and money goes in to RES. After a lot of reading and money we finally have everything right in his tank lol. For now he is in a 20 gallon tank with his heater, uvb ight, basking light, filter, plants, basking dock, snails and feeder fish. He has already eaten 2 snails! BTW, we have read the info about them eating the rocks so next time we clean his tank we plan to take them out, they are still a little big for him so he hasn't tried anything yet. Here are some pics:

Welcome to the fourm!!!Very cool setup

Welcome to Turtle Talk!!! He is very cute!! And you have a very nice set-up!! Do you have a UVB bulb? And if so, is it over the basking spot, with the heat bulb? You need to have heat(it looks like you have that covered), and UVB (I can't see a second bulb over the basking spot) over the basking spot.

Good luck with your new baby!!!

Very nice set-up and CUTE turtle! Welcome to the forum!

We have one UVB light off to the left side, which we now put in the middle of the tank, isn't that enough for him since he is mostly in the water?

wow your turtle grew pretty fast!! I've had mine for 4 months and they are both still under 1.5 in.

And for the uvb thing I'm pretty sure that the light won't pass through water, so if the turtle is in water it's not doing him any good. He has to get up on the dock and bask in order to get any benefit from it.

Watch out with those little pebbles. If he eats one, he could die.

Oh wow, I didn't know that the UVB doesn't pass through water. I'll just put it on the basking side then, thanks. Yeah, Toby grew pretty fast but I don't think we are over feeding him. Do you use the pellets for your turtles?

We are taking the rocks out next tank cleaning (soon).

Alright!!! (after the little pebbles are out) You will have the perfect set-up!! I don't think you are over feeding him, I think he is just very healthy!!!

He doesn't look like he's being over fed. His shell is nice and smooth. And yes I feed mine the pellets, well one of them didn't eat for like 3 weeks when I got them but he is actually the bigger one.
I also feed them romaine lettuce every day and worms occasionally.
And I feed them the pellets every day too but maybe I should start feeding them more pellets? I want them to grow!! But it seems like they are growing so slowly.

yeah, maybe if you feeed him more pellets, I'm not sure. Toby hated the pellets at first and we fed him an all worm diet so maybe that's what made him grow faster We feed him until he stops eating which is usually more than his head size.

Ok, maybe you are overfeeding a little. Is he eating pellets yet? You should really get him on a good brand pellet, like Reptomin. You should only feed the amount of pellets that will fit in his head if it where hollow, don't include the neck, just the head. Once a day, when he reaches 4 inches, you should cut back to every other day. He should be eating leafy greens everyday, and if he begs, you can give him some more greens.

Feeding him an "all you can eat, worms only diet" is NOT healthy!

Good luck "righting" his diet!!

Well I only did the worm thing the first couple weeks we had him since he would not eat anything else at all. We tried a different brand of pellets and now that's what he eats.

We try to only give him a head size worth but then we notice he franticly swims at the tank glass for over than an hour and will not stop until his hunger is satisfied. So we feel bad for him. I guess we will try giving him more greens when he does that Thanks for the info!

Lol! Yes, they are excellent beggers. If I where to feed my RES all he wanted, I think he would crack out of his shell!!! In there natural environment, they wouldn't know when there next meal is coming, so they are "programed" to eat as much as they can whenever there is a food source. They never get that "full fealing" like we do. They will eat until they can't fit anything else in. So we, as responsible RES owners, have to make sure they don't get fat!!

I am glad you are cutting down on the pellets, and feeding more greens. There will be allot of begging until he gets used to the new diet, but DON"T GIVE IN!!!

Good luck!!!!