redearslider.com

Hello,

Yesterday my GF bought 2 little turtles from a Flea Market. While I did not agree to this, she loves and cares for animals in a proper way. I came across this site while researching the nature and species of these little guys and will pluck what information I can to get things setup correctly.
Any tidbits are welcome....

First, welcome to the forum. My suggestion is to read through as much of the forum as you can (there's so much information contained here to help) and read the main site as well. The downloadable caresheets from the main site will help you get started with all the basic info that you need. After doing some more specific research just ask if you have any questions. Here's a few tips to get you started:

1) Recommended tank size is ten gallons per inch of shell (with multiple turtles add the shell lengths together)

2) RES love to swim even young ones so don't be afraid to fill the tank up leaving enough space where they can't escape.

3) Be sure to invest in a good filter (rated 2-3x's the size of your tank)

4) Both a UVB light and a heat light are necessary over the basking area to insure yourrr turtles stay healthy.

5) Accurate temps of water (78 for hatchlings, 72-75 for older turtles) and basking area (88-90) is extremely important to the health of your turtles. Along with a heater for the water invest in a couple of thermometers to read the temps of both the water and the basking area.

There's so much more to learn in caring for RES, but I'll stop there for now. Just let us know how we can help you.

Welcome we love to see pictures!

Thanks so much for the reply Sonyj, while we don’t want to go broke buying too much equipment right from the start but we also want these cute guys to be cared for correctly.
We will be making a trip to the local pet shop to get started with the essentials. I have printed your reply and will have it in hand for resource!
We were trying to determine the gender last night, the big guy (Max) appears to have a more concave Plastron while (Maxine) is more flat. The claws appear to be the same length on both from what we can tell. Max's "red ear" markings are more predominate that Maxine’s, is this gender sign as well?

Thanks again,
Mark, Kerrie and Jorden.

PS.. Tinyslider.. I will send pics soon

How big are they? (the length of shells from tip to tip not including the curve) If they are less than four inches in length, then you will not be able to tell what gender they are. Even when young, if they show signs of one sex or the other, it may very well change as they mature and get closer to four inches+. Males have very, very long claws while females are shorter. There's many posts on here about how to tell the gender of your RES. You may want to search for them if your turtles are around four inches to be able to tell for sure.