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We ended up with someone's discarded pet chicken turtle (in too small aquarium in trash pile). At least, we believe that it's a chicken turtle, if someone could make a positive id, that would be helpful.

Approximately 6" long, yellow plastron, really long neck, picture below. Likely female (short claws, flat plastron).

Lethargic when we got it, food, clean water and a light and she started acting more like a turtle should.

It's now in a spare 55 gallon tank at our house with a make shift egg crate & pvc pipe island, but we need to know where to go from here.

Light recommendation? (right now we're using the old fish tank lights and a table lamp because that was what was handy and we KNOW its not right)

How soon will we need to increase the tank size? to what? (basically what does she need at full adult size and is it big enough to add a similar size friend? Would it even want another turtle living with it? Are there fish or other critters it can live with without eating them? (guessing no)

Food? How much? How often? Right now, it will only eat live fish. Won't touch anything resembling a plant and has ignored pellets a friend brought over. Didn't eat until we got feeder fish and it will eat as many as it can catch. Will a turtle overeat?

Shell has algae on it, is it safe to clean it off? soft toothbrush?

Shell also seems to be separating? Is it shedding scutes or is this another issue?

What am I forgetting that's important to keep her healthy?

Thanks for any help and insight.

Definitely a chicken turtle, and a wild caught one at that. It's very hard to get wild chickens to eat anything besides live food, so enjoy the feeder fish and crawfish meals. Try to offer some aquamax trout chow, it has a fishy smell, that some stubborn turtles enjoy. If it is a female, you'll eventually need a 100 gallon tank. Just get a pet shop heat lamp, and bulb. It looks to be shedding, don't worry about the algae, it's not hurting anything. It will go away with regular basking, and shedding.

Thank you! Silly question - how do you id wild caught from captive bred? Not doubting, just curious. Despite what seems like horrible previous conditions, it does nor appear to be afraid of people. It will walk towards people and cats. Hides from big dogs. (turtle was safe during this)

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After doing a bit of research, figured out I am NOT at all confident on gender. I was looking for flat vs curved plastron and long claws on male, which doesn't apparently apply to chicken turtles. Can anyone help? Unfortunately, I can seem to get a picture with the tail out! Hopefully, someone can tell with the limited info. I'd much rather get the correct adult size tank the first time!

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Also, should I be concerned about the discoloration on the plastron? What is it? Normal variation in color or something else?

It's a male, and it looks like he's had a little bit of shell rot, but it's not bad at all. Nothing a clean tank won't fix. You can tell its wild caught, basically from how smooth the growth is, combined with the fact that it will only take live foods.

Thank you! Knowing it's male makes it much easier to get the correct size tank. At 6" now, it seems he's about as big as he's going to get. (assuming the males 4-6" is fairly accurate).