First Time Turtle Owner

[morganthomaswintle]

I may go on a bit but please please stick with it.

Hi my name is Karen & after years of wanting a Turtle, finally by chance at 32 (a divorce in the family) I have got two stunners a yellow belly around 5 inches & a red earred around 4.5 inches, now named Jules & Travis, I'll be honest I know/knew nothing about looking after them and I'm trying my best to find out as much as I can and would love any info that I can get as I am already completely obsessed by them and cant stop watching them.

All we received with them was a 4ft tank, heater, gravel, a Turtle dock (which I cannot imagine either of the Turtles would have been able to fit on), a filter (which I doubt would be able filter a small fish tank), a bag of frozen prawns & a packet of Tesco Crap Sticks.

I did know that Turtles need to come out of the water so the first thing we done was go down the beach and got a load of flat stone to build a platform for them & a lamp, which they are absolutely loving.

The next thing is a Filter, if someone could advice me on a good one to get this would be great? In my local Pet shop they have The Fluval U1-U4 are they any good?

I've noticed they have a little bit of algae on their shell, what would be the best way to clean this?

Is it ok to handle them? alot of website say different things & really don't want to upset them cause they do seem a little nervous.

Would it be ok to feed them small chunks of Mackerel? my husband is a very very keen fisher & catches Mackerel to use as bait, could it also go as food?

I probably will have tonnes more to learn but this is all for the moment, although any other advice or tips would be appreciated.

Thanks You

[jacquisunderland]

Hiya Karen.. Welcome to the squad.. its always fab to have new members.. please dont be a stranger to the forum n join in with queries, antidotes and any experiences. Please read as much of the threads on the forum as posssible, when I first joined I found them very useful and still do to read further on requirements and recommendations, especially from Wayne, Dan and Turtlegirl. Firstly, the reason they have algae on them is they desparately need a source of uv light as a matter of urgency and a heat lamp to bask under. you can handle them but not to much, when you clean them out, gently brush them with a toothbrush or a washing up pad , this will help to get rid of the algae, see Waynes video on the website for after hibernation. Please please be cautious with the flat stone, if you read my thread about the use of slate in your tank you'll understand what I mean. You should feed them on a dry mix available from the forum shop once or twice a week aswell as a varied diet of fresh fuit and veg; raw meat; liver; whitebait and fish, so you try them on mackeral buut I would leave the mackeral to the day before or the day on which you clean them out because its quite oily like the whitebait so it will leave oil on the top of the water,; some like banana, tomato, strawberries, lettuce not iceberg, prawns with shell on especially essentail for much needed calcium in their diet; raw king prawns; crayfish; snails;spiders; mussels and pinkys (baby dead mice). These are especially important as they offer all the essesntial nutrients they require in one I was told by my vet, not my favourite I must admit. Basicially I try them with anything some like one thing, some dont and vice versa. Feed them with a pair of tweezers, some will feed from you, its very rewarding, some have even been known to eventually feed from your hand but I havnt been that brave.
Most people prefer external filters but I prefer internal ones and to clean them more often as I have the onset of arthritis and sometimes I cant get down to fiddle on with them but each and to their own. Just keep your filter clean is the main thing.
Hope that helps a bit, and like I say just read the forum and you can learn alot, happy turtling, its competely addictive as any responsible owner will tell you.. x

[morganthomaswintle]

Thanks Jacquisunderland for answering my post, it's lovely to have advice and somewhere to go for answers from people who knows what they are talking about, I know no one who owns Turtles & dont think I would trust a lot of Pet Shops as they would probably advice me so I would end up buying products that I probably wouldnt need.

I have read your post about the stone, and I would be gutted. I'm also looking for a 4ft glass tank, the one we have at the moment is plastic but has alot of scratches. I'v also seen a Fluval 405 filter online which I think I'm going to get in the next few weeks, it sounds pretty good, just hope it is.

Have you any advice on Turtle Toppers, I spotter these whilst trawling for information on the net & they look good and it would be lovely to see my turtles having a almost full tank to swim in, I would probably have to make one as I dont know where to get one in the UK but its just another project for my husband, lol.

Just to double check I have a UV light in the tank at the moment but do I also need a basking lamp cause there seems to be alot of heat coming from the UV bulb, also does it have to be a certain UV bulb cause mine is just a normal shaped bulb that UV that I had from my local Home Bargains shop? Sorry for all the questions, I probably sound really thick!

I have tried feeding them lettuce & cucumber but they werent that bothered but will definitely keep trying them with different stuff, they seem to love the crab stick & prawns & Jules the YBS will take it from my fingers but Travis wont, but that may change in time as I havent had them a week yet. May leave the pinky feeding to my husband, I could never do it when we had our snake but if they like them then they can have them.

Also must apologise cause I've only just noticed I put crap sticks instead of crab stick on my first post, lol, what am I like, first impressions and all that. And as you've probably already noticed I tend to waffle on a lot.

Thanks Again

[tuktukscotty]

Hi, We made our basking area out of blue brick. We stood 2 bricks one their side and then layed 2 more blue bricks on the top of them to give them a nice big basking area. The beauty of this is that it gives them all of the tank to use as they can swim through the middle like kind of a cave, and also somewhere to hide for the shy ones!. As for handling them, my Timmy loved nothing more than to be handled and talked to!. He even lifted his head to have his chin tickled!!. I swear he understood what I was saying lol. His wife Tessa was a BIG BULLY!. She would take food from your fingers but with a snatch!!, where as Timmy would nice and gently take anything from either the palm of my hand or from my fingers!. Unfortunately I no longer have my terrapins as they were rehomed while I was at school one day!.

[morganthomaswintle]

Thanks for replying tuktukscotty but thats really sad, I havent had mine a week yet & would be gutted if anything happened to them or my husband got rid of them, (which I wouldnt be surprised if he tried cause I'v done his head in about them already, even had him down the beach getting shrimps today, which Jules & Travis looooooved).
I also handled them for the first time today to clean their shells & they werent as bad as I thought they'd be, seeing as I dont think they really had much time spent with or on them before.
At the moment we have a stone basking area which they love, I dont think they had a area or lamp before but I have given my husband a project to make a Turtle Topper & see how they like that, we can always change it if they dont.

I hope you get to have terrapins again, I think they are the best pets I've had and I'v had most things over the years.

[Turtle Rescue UK]

Aug 11, 2011 10:32:04 GMT morganthomaswintle said:

Also must apologise cause I've only just noticed I put crap sticks instead of crab stick on my first post, lol, what am I like, first impressions and all that. And as you've probably already noticed I tend to waffle on a lot.

Hi Karen

Welcome to the forum, My name is Dan and i am the webmaster for this site. So if you have any technical problems please let me know and i will try to help you in the best way i can.

Also to stop you from accidentally spelling words wrong their is a spell check button next to the Post Reply button. Even though i must admit i didn't even notice the "Crap sticks" ;D.

I have also had my problems with the Fluval 405 External Filters. I went on holiday and it flooded my bedroom and the downstairs, it leaked from the canister.

I would recommended external filters more as they are much better at cleaning/purifying the water, although they are more prone to leaks unlike internal filters.

Try and find another brand of an external filter, i know a few other people that have had a problem with the fluvals.

Hope this helps

Kind Regards
Dan

[tuktukscotty]

Mine were rehomed to someone with a Large purpose built pond so was not all bad, just was not happy of how it was done!. However I do understand why it was done in the way that it was (long story). I am now building myself a purpose built pond/enclosure that will be a 16ft by 10ft outdoor pond and a 6ft by 4ft in door pond that are interlinked. It is going to take me approx 12 months to complete. I am not in any rush as I want it to be the best that it can be!.

[morganthomaswintle]

Hi & Thanks Dan, is there any specific brand of external filter thats good or you could recommend, would rather get a really good one first as last.

tuktukscotty thats sound great, I wish I had more room for a bigger tank for my turtles but dont at the moment although I probably wont ever have that kind of space.

[morganthomaswintle]

Here's a picture of our DIY Turtle Topper, still waiting for our lamps to arrive so had to improvise a bit but so far Jules & Travis absolutely love it and its lovely to be able to watch them swimming with the full tank of water.

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[Turtle Rescue UK]

Looking good, remember to be careful with those rocks at the bottom of your tank.

Also could you maybe take a picture with the light off so we can see clearly...

Apart from that, i think it is great, so well done

Kind Regards
Dan

[morganthomaswintle]

And this is Jules just about to take a dip & Travis stretched out catching a few rays

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[morganthomaswintle]

Thanks Dan, here's a close up of the actual box, it turned out much better than I expected & only took them around 20mins to work it out but they cant get enough of it, like I said we've had to improvise with the lamps at the moment but I'm expecting them any day now.

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[wayne020668]

hi and welcome to our frendily family here on the forum, all we ask is that everyone treats the forum as a place to go and chat nicely here... i would also like to offer you as all members and indeed anyone that needs a little help that if you need a question asnwered no matter how small that you feel comfortable to simply ask it.. we have all been there so please feel free its what the whole site was set up for and just one last thing my phone is always on so please, please should you need anything then feel free to simply call me and if i can help you with my last 21yrs ex then i will. should the phone be off or you cant get through for some reasone then simply either e-mail us or leave a message as we always answer every call and message... nice to see your loved ones pics and hope to hear from you soon...

regards wayne...

[morganthomaswintle]

Hi & Thanks Wayne, I absolutely love this forum & really do not know what I would have done without it, we had our Turtles at very short notice & I knew nothing about them, its been lovely to have encouraging advice off people who know what they are talking about through experience rather than all the conflicting info on the net & my two love the food we had from yourselves, which they have every third feed.
I will probably have tonnes of other things to ask & learn about as I go along & thank you for offering your help with that.

Thanks again

Karen

[turtlegirl]

That turtle tank topper looks amazing. Could you possibly give detailed instructions on how you did it, what materials you used(and where you got them from) etc. My turtles would love it, esp the large adult sliders who could do with more swimming space
Not sure if my DIY skills are up to it but would love to have a go if I knew how. Yours looks really good