We got two yellow bellied sliders last week (having spent some time reading up about their care, and being fairly sure we knew what we were letting ourselves in for), and are very happy with them so far. My wife and I have a soft spot for them, as when we were engaged, we used to go to what is now Tropical World in Roundhay Park in Leeds (North West UK) (used to be known as the old Victorian greenhouse in those days, and was much smaller, but if you look at the 3rd picture down on that web page, you'll some of the red eared sliders that we used to visit) and sit by the terrapin pond. We got very fond of them (as well as each other!), and have long had the idea of having some of our own. It just took us a long time to get around to it!
As we are hugely unimaginative, we called them Yertle and Mack, mainly because their characters really suited the two characters. Just on the offchance there is anyone reading who doesn't know who they were, read the story of Yertle The Turtle by Dr Seuss (which is much better with the pictures), and you'll see
They are each about 1.5" from the front of the shell to the back of it, housed in a 54l tank, with a sand substrate, half full of water, loads of rocks around the back and left (protecting the filter and heater, as well as supplying basking areas) and a couple of plastic plants...
If you look closely, you can just see Mack's head poking up above the water to the left of the leftmost rock. Just so Yertle doesn't feel left out, here is a picture of him/her...
(I'm not sure if they have fixed up their wireless connection yet, so they may not be able to read this post. Don't want to upset them if they do though!)
The rocks in the back right-hand corner are built in front of the filter, and there is another rock on top of it, hiding the actual filter, but allowing the water to flow through a gap underneath, which looks quite natural...
I set the heater temperature to 24degs, although the thermometer tends to show around 25-26degs. For light, we have a Repti-Glo 5.0 UVB fitted in the tank hood.
So, after that ramble, I guess the first question is, does anyone have any comments on what we've done so far? We want to give them the best home we can, so if you have any suggestions, please feel free.
Next thing is feeding. When we got them, we bought some frozen reptile food, which contains bloodworms, lettuce, fish, beefheart, gammerus (I think that’s what it was called, either way it all looks positively revolting), and were told that we should also get some pellets, which they had run out of, but are getting more in this week.
A lot of people seem to recommend feeding them in a separate container, which we do. We put the food in it, add about 1" of tank water, then gently lift the two of them out of the tank and put them in the container. We usually put this on the table so we can watch them eating. We feed them at breakfast and lunch time, which amuses the children no end!
When we first tried feeding them, the only thing they would eat were bloodworms, and ignored anything else in the mix. They seem to be less fussy now, and will eat all the frozen bugs we've tried, which (apart from the mix) are plain bloodworms and also mysis (we have a separate tropical fish tank, and had these in already as treats for the fish). We give them a quarter of a cube per meal, so they end up with about half a cube each per day. This fits with the general rule of giving them a volume roughly equal to their head. Now they've settled down, they tend to eat pretty much the lot. Sometimes leave a little, but not much.
We tried them on vegetables, but so far haven't found anything they will touch. We tried the soft inside bits of cucumber, but that was ignored. We tried a dandelion leaf from the garden (carefully washed), but they ignored that too. Should they be eating their greens? I told them they wouldn't get afters if they didn't eat their greens, but they didn't listen!
Is this a good feeding regime? We want them to grow and be healthy, so again, any tips would be welcome.
One of the reason given for feeding them in a separate container was to reduce the pollution in the tank. We read that they tend to do their business within around 15 minutes of feeding. I can't say we've ever noticed this, as the water is usually pretty clear when we take them out. Not only that, but when they were in the feeding container yesterday, I tried moving the plants, and found loads of turtle poo under the big one (which is where they like to hang out a lot of the time). Looks like they wait until they get back into the tank before doing anything. Can't say I blame them, I wouldn't like a giggling audience when I went to be excused!
Is there anything we can do to encourage them to do their mess in the container? Given that we take out tank water twice a day when we feed them, I'm not too worried about the water quality, as it's being changed regularly enough, but the sand isn't as easy to clean as gravel (which we have in the fish tank), and it shows the muck much more clearly.
Finally (you'll be glad to know!), I was wondering if there is a way to keep the glass clear above the waterline. I wiped it down before taking the pictures above, so you can see in without problem, but normally, the glass is fairly heavily covered with condensed water. This isn't surprising, as the air inside is quite warm (you can feel the warm damp air when you open the flap on the tank lid), but it makes it hard to see the upper half of the tank.
Any suggestions?
Sorry for such a long post, but we're really happy with our new friends, and want to make sure we're doing the best for them. I also got carried away typing!
Anyway, any comments or suggestions would be very welcome. If there's anything I forgot to include, feel free to ask.
Thanks
