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[opiter]

HI,
I recently rescued a female RES a few months ago while looking for a new townhouse. The landlord said the previous tennants just left her and he had no idea how to take care of her. She was in a dirty 10g tank with a boat load of food swimming on the top with poop and scutes on the bottom, a turtle dock that was so small she couldn't even climb on it and no basking light, just one of those hood lights for fish. He was more than happy to get her off his hands and I was happy to add her to my exotic collection. I've been lurking around a few days trying to gather as much info on RES's as possible and I gotta say it was overwhelming at first but I think I got it now.

1st day home with some new water not much else...

I really can't say how old she is since judging from her previous conditions she was grossly overfed. Sizewise I would say she is about 5.5in. When we first brought her home we upgraded her to a much larger dock and since we really didn't prepare for this addition the closest thing I had to a basking lamp was an old lava lamp base. After a few day we would catch her up on the dock lovin life. Her skin and scutes were shedding like mad but have since slowed down. We also got her some goldfish at the advise of a "highly knowledgable" petco employee. She has eaten one but the other she just chases around and doesn't even snap at it.

Last week we got her her first decent home. A HUGE 55g tank all to herself (well, and her fishy buddy too). It came with a bunch of extra crap that I dont need but it was a good deal.

She looks so small now :)

Some changes that I've implemented are definately cutting back on feeding. I've been trying to give her some greens, mostly dandelion leaves (I don't think they use any fertilizer or anything like that cuz there are tons of them), and I thrown in some crickets when I feed my scorpion. She really loved those!! Right now she has a UVA bulb in her lamp, i didn't know about the UVB until just a few days ago Next is just talking my fiance into upgrading the filter wish me luck!!

What a cutie

[steve]

Hi, welcome to the site! She doesn't look too bad and I'm glad she's found a new owner. I'll bet your fiance starts buying turtle goodies in no time

[sflemin2]

Aw I am glad you saved her! I bet she is LOVING that new tank! As a very rough guess at her age, I would say 5-6. My females were her size at that age but its hard to tell since they all grow different ..and we dont know what kind of diet she had. Mine ar roughly 10 inches at 10 years now..so she probably isnt that much older than 5. I have noticed most females on here are about the age of the length of their shells in inches (again..roughly and just an estimate). I agree with steve..she looks great. I am surprised she didnt have shell rot in a 10 gallon tank!

[opiter]

Thanks.
I dunno about the shell rot part. I've noticed a small white patch just above her left arm. She's only been in the larger tank since this last saturday and the only basking light she has had is the lava lamp. I've been researching on things to do but any tips would help.

[sflemin2]

Can you take a pic of the spot? As for the lava lamp base, that wont affect the actual bulb to my knowledge. If you have the UVB bulb now, all you need is a regular household light bulb for heat. If the basking area is 10 degrees warmer than the water, it will encourage her to bask (although she may be shy to bask in front of you at first). You can get the clamp light sockets at walmart for $6-$8 in the tools section. Don't bother getting them at the pet store..they are the same thing but more expensive.

I know it is a lot to take in but you are off to a great start. My only main concern of your tank is the gravel at the bottom. If she eats any, it could become impacted and kill her . A lot of us use sand since it looks nice and is fairly cheap (but make sure you rinse it!!)

[opiter]

Thanks again.
I got her a regular clip on lamp with a UVA bulb from zoomed, its blue. It doesn't seem to get very hot but its warmer than the water which varies between 74 and 76 right now.
I took the gravel out last night after reading a post about another members RES pooping rocks even after the sustrate was changed. I was going to include it in my original post but i was limited to only 3 pics. So here it is, unfortunatly its the right side. I'll grab one and post it tonight.

After taking out the rocks.

[sflemin2]

Very good . The other light bulb is a standard every day light bulb just to make it warmer. Shes so cute!