Hi! Introduce yourselves here. :: Hi Turtle People

[Jet]

Hi Everyone,

so glad I found this site. We're new to RES and have found it to be both fun and challenging. We "adopted" a 3 y/o from our neighbor next door for my 5 year old son. My son calles him Squirt. Poor Squirt had been living in the garage with just a floresent light (not a great environment especially in the Seattle area). When we got him, a visit to the vet found dermatitis, and a low grade infection and a compromised shell. Never knew this existed! Anyway after having to administer antibotic shoots (never knew I could do that), iodine soaks and purchasing all the right stuff (does anyone else find UV, basking lamps and filters as confusing as I do) Squirt is on the mend, we've had him for about 5 months and his shell is so much better, the infection has cleared up and he is so much more active. And he seems to like me better these days, at least he doesn't hiss at me so much!
He has certainly turned out to be a pretty fun pet to have around. There is still so much to learn and I look forward to getting some input from the experts out there.
Thanks for having me!
Tina (Jet) in Seattle

[DavidY]

Welcome to the forum! That is really awesome that you have taken such great care of your turtle like that! It's obvious you appreciate the great personality that these little guys can have as much as we do. They are a lot of fun to take care of and just watch. I hope you can post a picture or two of Squirt when you get a chance.

[Safdar]

Welcome to the forums

Glad to see your having fun

[Jet]

I acutally did take a couple of pictures of him when he was outside on a very nice sunny day, and hopefully I get my camera downloaded one of these days and post one. I actually wished I could have gotten him sleeping last night, arms and legs all spread out and stretched! LOL! I think he likes the force of output hose, he seems to like to get his "hair" blown back!
Thanx for the great welcome!
Jet

[steve]

Sounds great that Squirt has found your family! Be careful of iodine soaks, you definitely don't want your RES to accidentally ingest some. Tell us what kind of setup you have, and we'll be glad to offer some recommendations on lights, filters, etc!

[Jet]

Hi and thanx Steve.
We use a very weak iodine soaks and don't put in alot of water so he's submerged.
We need to upgrade to a larger tank, he's in a 20 gallon right now. It's been pretty difficult to find one that is suitable on craigs list. I might just bite the bullet and get a new one, but the new Fluval 250 we just bought set us back a bit. I have a red basking light and a UV for him, the UV is a 10. That has been the most confusing part of turtle ownership for me! Not easy! both lights are in their own clamp on fixtures about 10 inches from his basking spot which is one of those floating platforms.
I do have a question about turtle personalities and some other stuff that maybe you can direct me to the proper place to post them. It seems some days he's super active wants to eat all the time then other days he's really low key and doesn't have much of an appetite. His shell has been peeling a bit and he has been in this shed mode for awhile. It's not really bad just some wispy stuff that doesn't get worse but never seems to go away. The vet said he thought that he had a slight Vitamin A deficency so we've been giving him about 4 or 5 goldfish a week and I clip some lettuce to his tank. But it has not seemed to go completly away. I also put him outside in the sun for a couple of hours usually on the weekends when I'm not at work.
Also he walks around with his eyes closed alot. Whew! Thanks for listening, as you can probably tell I've grown quite fond of this little bugger!
Thanx again..........Tina

[steve]

Do you mean he's not submerged? For a tank, you can always use a plastic storage container, I've found some as large as 60 gallons. However you need to make sure it's not filled very high and regularly check for leaks or cracks. If you are using a brand new UVB light, you might want to keep it a bit further away for the first few days. New bulbs can have a very high and unhealthy UVB output and need a "burn in" period.

RES have their own distinct personalities. However, cold temperatures can inhibit appetite. Water temps for an adult slider should be around 75, basking area around 90. I'd skip the goldfish and offer some shredded carrots instead. Goldfish are not the best fish to use and I've never heard of them as a source of Vit A.

Shedding skin doesn't really go away, it happens frequently. I'm not sure what you mean by the walking with eyes closed?

[DavidY]

If his eyes are closed a lot I would suspect it's irritation caused by the UVB bulb. You said it was a 10...is it the Zoo Med Reptisun 10.0 bulb? If so, that's a pretty strong bulb and has been known to cause eye irritation in turtles recently. You should make sure it's positioned at least 18 inches away from the basking dock during the first 2 weeks of use. Those bulbs burn brighter during the first 2 weeks, as Steve mentioned. After that you can move it in a little closer like 15 inches away. But for now you should just turn it off until your turtle's eyes get better. You can also use the turtle eye drops to help.

I also assume you were talking about the water level when you're treating him with the iodine solution. In his 20gallon tank you can fill it up enough so that he can't climb out of the tank. They love to swim.

As for the peeling skin/shedding...they will tend to do that more if the water is on the warm side. I also noticed my adopted RES were shedding for a couple of months after I took them in. I figured it was because of the horrible conditions they were kept in by the previous owner (water so brown you couldn't see the turtles at all and it smelled like a septic tank). When they got into the clean water it was as if they were shedding all the dirty old skin off as much as they could.

Make sure to give your turtle a variety of veggies on the list in the Nutrition section of this site. Those should be eaten every day. Also Reptomin turtle sticks are a good staple diet to feed, but it's good to mix in a few other types of other foods as well (again check the Nutrition section for how much to feed).

[Jet]

Hi again Steve,
He's submerged in his tank, but when I soak him I put him in a big container and don't fill it up with alot of water just enough for him to stay wet. The UV I have has been up for awhile and already gone through it's burn in so I did move it closer to his basking spot.
Glad to hear about his skin, just a turtle thing I guess. The vet told me about the goldfish, I might have to rethink my vet maybe? What are good feeder fish for a turtle?
He walks around with his eyes closed. It's weird. He'll come out of the water and open his eyes but when he goes back in he'll close them, he'll swim and play like this too.
I wonder if there is something in the water I'm missing that is irritating his eys? I don't have a heater so maybe his water is not as warm as it should be. What type of heater do you recommend. I will need something that I can upgrade with when I move him up to a bigger tank so I don't have to buy another one.
Thanx again!

[DavidY]

You might want to get a freshwater test kit from the pet store and check the water for ammonia, nitrites and pH. These things could all cause eye irritation and possibly excess shedding. They can also lead to much worse too if not corrected.

[steve]

I don't know if you should switch to a different vet, but definitely know what options you do have in case of an emergency.

Minnows and guppies are considered to be much healthier than goldfish who happen to be fattier and more prone to parasitic infection. However, live fish should be used sparingly anyway.

The closed eye situation sounds weird, how often do you do water changes?

[Jet]

Hi David,

Thanx for your advice. I might do the water test as I think that since he is in a small tank the water might be getting too dirty too quickly for him. I do siphon the water every two or three days and replace most of it. He is in one of those stupid tanks they sell with turtles, the one's with the cut out on one side. I'm going to look at a 50 gallon today I found on Craigs List.
I'm not sure if all of this is related to his living conditions before I got him. He was living in a dark garage without any heat or UV lights, his water was always cold and when we got him, he was so covered with algae that I was afraid I was going to hurt him getting it off. Poor guy. Since we've had him his shell has begun to peel and he has been shedding. His shell is beginning to look quite nice and much smoother than what it was.
Thanx again for your advice!

[Jet]

Hi Steve,

Thanks for your reply. As I mentioned to David I siphon his water every 2 or 3 days and pretty much replace most of it.
The eye thing is weird as he opens them when he is out of the water basking or sticking his head up then we he gets back under, he'll close them. I'm thinking maybe a water condition? Like David mentioned?
I get a little worried as eye problems can be a sign of something worse. He's been doing this eye thing on and off for the last several weeks starting about a month or two ago.
The vet doesn't think it's a big deal as long as he is eating.
I did change his food from the Turtle Bits to the Reptomin sticks but that picky guys seems to prefer the turtle bites! LOL. I've been breaking the sticks but he doesn't seem to get that excited. 2 kids, 2 dogs and a turtle, I'm tired!
thanx again!