r/turtle 17d ago

General Discussion It’s that time of year!

8 Upvotes

It is hatchling season!

They are coming out of their overwinter nests and going to sources of water. If you find one in an odd place or somewhere unsafe and are unsure, please contact your state wildlife and ask them what to do. Most can actually be left where they are, to their own devices. If they are found in the middle of the road, for example, move them to the side they are facing.

Taking any turtles home, that are found in the wild, hurts the ecosystem. The only exception to this would be invasive species in your state. You can contact your state wildlife to see what your laws are regarding possession of invasive turtles like red eared sliders.


r/turtle Sep 06 '23

General Discussion Read Before Posting: How to ask a question, and answers to common questions like "I found a turtle, can I keep it", "what filter do I get", "what species is this turtle?"

18 Upvotes

How to ask a question

A good question provides sufficient details to be intelligently answered. Vague questions get bad or no answers.

If its a health question, we need details about species, size and age of the turtle, along with photos of the enclosure, and details of your husbandry. Fine grained details, such as what temperature is the water way, what is your light cycle, what are the models of light bulbs and how old are your UV bubs. Clear photos are important

I found a turtle, can I keep it?

In general no, this is detrimental to your local ecosystem, and in many places it is a crime. With some species, its a crime that can carry decades in prison. Turtles are under immense pressure from poaching and collecting of wild specimens. Many species have entirely gone extinct in the wild solely from over collection, many more are on the verge of becoming extinct due to this. The best thing you can do for a wild turtle is to enjoy it's wild existence, and plant native plants that are part of it's diet.

The one exception to this is the case of invasive species, in some places it can be a crime not to remove invasive species from your property, and in some places if you catch an invasive species you are legally responsible to deal with it. North American (Red Ear, Yellow Bellied) Sliders in particular have entirely replaced some endangered species in their native ecosystems. Do not simply catch turtles because you think they may be invasive. Identify the species, and contact your local wildlife authority for directions on what to do with invasive species. You may end up legally required to care for that an invasive turtle if caught.

For an in-depth explanation, please see this write up from one of our moderators: https://www.reddit.com/r/turtle/comments/80nnre/can_i_keep_this_turtle_i_found_as_a_pet_can_i/

I caught an invasive species, what do I do.

Reach out to your local wildlife authority, and follow their directives. Laws on this vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Under no circumstances should an invasive turtle be released into the wild. There are laws in some jurisdictions that require you to now care for, or otherwise deal with this turtle without releasing it back to the wild.

Can I release a wild turtle that I kept for a while?

I previously found a turtle and kept it, what do I do now?

I can't care for my turtle, can I release it?

Releasing of formerly captive turtles has had the effects of introducing non native pathogens to populations. For example austwickia chelonae has infected populations of the critically endangered gopher and desert tortoises due to people releasing captive turtles. Re-release of formerly wild turtles must be done with great care, and under the guidance of an expert. Contact your local wildlife authorities. If you are concerned about potential legal ramifications, seek the advice of an attorney, or perhaps the turtle was abandoned on your front porch with a note?

I found an injured turtle, what do I do?

Turtles are amazing resilient animals, and can recover from some truly horrific conditions. I have nursed back turtles that had gone unfed for over a year, and I have patched up turtles hit by cars. Many injuries commonly seen in wild turtles need no human intervention. Common sources for help on this would be your local wildlife authorities, local wildlife rehabilitators, veterinary universities, or your local exotics veterinarian.

You can also post quality photos for more community feedback, but please appropriately flair them. Often injuries need no treatment other than time.

Can you identify this turtle for me? What species of turtle do I have?

Post multiple clear photos of the turtle, and include a general location of where it was found. There are over 350 species, and at least another 175 sub species of turtles. Many turtle species look identical, most subspecies look quite similar to others. Some species are so morphologically similar that DNA testing is required to positively ID them when absent of location data. Some species integrade or hybridize in the wild, and can become difficult to differentiate. Since we lack the ability to do DNA testing through reddit, our work around for that is to require that all identification requests come with a general location. We don't need your street address, we don't need your town name, but we need more than "Brazil" or "Texas", give us the district, province or state at the very least. Location data can make all the difference.

I am concerned about the condition of a turtle on display in a public facility, what do I do.

It is unfortunately common for schools, universities, museums and even zoos to improperly care for turtles. There are so many species, and often people are following care advice from decades ago. The best route is to contact whoever is in charge of public relations for that facility. You are welcome to contact the mod team with photos for advice, we have even acted as go betweens for students and their universities to successfully better the care of animals on display.

My tank is a lot of work to keep clean, how do I make it easier?

My tank water is cloudy despite having a good filter, why?

My tank is always dirty, why?

How do I setup a filter?

The best way to filter the average turtle enclosure is to use a large canister filter, setup to provide ample surface area for beneficial bacteria to thrive, and to seed the tank with appropriate bacteria. That bacteria is what will do the vast majority of cleaning for your tank, the filter will keep the water moving and provide biological filter media for the bacteria to prosper. An optimal filter setup will save you time, and keep your turtle happy.

See this write up from our mod team on how to setup a canister filter for optimal biological filtration: https://www.reddit.com/r/turtle/comments/x48id2/supercharge_your_filter_how_to_properly_setup/

What do I feed my turtle?

This varies by species, and often by age of the turtle. The best advice we have is to review multiple care sheets for your turtle species, and go from there. The best diet, is a varied diet. Feed the largest variety of appropriate food that you can, do not assume your turtle can survive and thrive long term on pellets.

What lighting does my turtle needs?

In general, it is advisable to have a basking bulb, a UVA/UVB bulb, and white lighting. I highly advise the use of well respected and trusted UV bulbs, as many counterfeits now exist on the market, often marketed as combination basking and UV bulbs. These counterfeits often output no UV, the wrong UV spectrums, too much UV, too little US or sometimes are unfiltered halogen bulbs that output UVC, which is dangerous to you and your pets.

I want a turtle, where can I get one?

Your first choice should be a site like petfinder.com, often you can find turtles in the care of rescue organisations that are in need of a home. Your second choice should be a respected breeder. Petstores and random online stores should be your last choice. When buying online, do your research. Can you find the store owner's name? Did they breed it? If so where? Search for online reviews, are they negative. Do they seem to have an unlimited supply of each species they office?

Be aware, there are many active turtle and tortoise scams online. Some are "rehoming" services that charge you shipping and never send anything. Others are people selling rare species way under value... who never send anything. There are some claiming to ship turtles internationally, even protected species, these are scams.


r/turtle 5h ago

Seeking Advice Tank ideas

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21 Upvotes

What toys, plants and or decorations are suitable for him?


r/turtle 29m ago

General Discussion Is She Alright?

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Upvotes

Hi everyone!

I just wanted to ask if our red-ear slider’s shell and belly look alright and normal.

She is almost a year old now.

Your advices would highly be appreciated. Thank you!


r/turtle 19h ago

Turtle Pics! I made a viral post last year about a female box tortoise that I befriended after giving her some raspberries. Well, guess who just showed up again in my garden this year?

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96 Upvotes

r/turtle 1d ago

Seeking Advice Why is my bro doing this?

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605 Upvotes

r/turtle 19h ago

Seeking Advice Is this normal?

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82 Upvotes

My turtle dropped a large shell piece, is this normal?


r/turtle 11h ago

Turtle Pics! I edited a photo of my pet turtle "shelly" and I'll let you guys rate it!

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12 Upvotes

Is it good?


r/turtle 20h ago

Seeking Advice This little guy's life hangs in my hands and I don't know what to do

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45 Upvotes

r/turtle 11h ago

Turtle ID/Sex Request Hey guys! Can you Identify the sex of my turtle? I'm not sure that my turtle is male/female?

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7 Upvotes

Since I bought the turtles I think Shelly is female and Sheldon is male.


r/turtle 12h ago

Turtle Pics! My Turtle is Quite Photogenic!

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7 Upvotes

r/turtle 8h ago

Seeking Advice What is this on her skin?

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3 Upvotes

Saw this while she was splashing about, she’s very active


r/turtle 22h ago

Seeking Advice Housing turtles together

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41 Upvotes

Hi! I manage a company that has a few turtles that we’re currently in the process of building new tanks for as they’re getting too big for their current ones. I recently made a post to this sub about our snapping turtle, Toby (which I appreciate all the help on, but I was having trouble responding to comments?) but we have our other two turtles that I have some concerns about.

Our yellow bellied slider (Jimmy) we’ve had for just over two years and I’m nearly 100% positive is male. Jimmy is about 6inchs

We also have a peninsula cooter (Guy) who we’ve had for a little over a year. After looking at him today, I think ‘he’ might actually be a girl. Though I’m not entirely sure. Guy is only about 4 inches.

Currently all of our turtles are housed separately. In the new tanks we’re building, one will be for our snapper turtle Toby, and the other we were planning to have both Jimmy and Guy. Their side of the tank will be about 450 gallons completely full so obviously actual water will be less than that between actual fill depth, substrate, etc.

To my understanding their tank should be big enough to house two turtles in but I have concerns about the turtles not being close enough in size and the gender of both turtles as well as the fact that they’re different species. If they’re both close enough in size but are separate genders can you keep them together? I’ve tried to inform the owner that that’s likely not a good idea due to the possibility of them breeding but she doesn’t seem convinced about the downfalls even if they did breed.

I’m putting photos of both turtles and the tank that’s being built. I’m just looking for advice on Guy’s gender and the ability to house them together/downsides if we do house two turtles of different genders. The owner is pretty set on housing Jimmy and Guy together. Any help is appreciated as I have little experience in turtle keeping!


r/turtle 3h ago

Turtle ID/Sex Request Turtle Gender???

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1 Upvotes

Got this 10 year old painted turtle a few weeks ago, can anyone tell if it is male or female? “He” thought he was getting more food so I couldn’t get a calmer picture of him lol. Hopefully that shows the claws enough 🙏


r/turtle 3h ago

Seeking Advice any tank ideas?

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1 Upvotes

hey guys :) i recently received two musk turtles from a friend of a friend, since they couldn’t take care of them. i just bought new stuff for their tank yesterday and put it all together today as it was a pretty dark and gloomy place with very little water before hand- barely covering the turtles shell.

they are certainly a lot more active since i added new stones and new decorations, but i just worry that it might be stress? i could just be over thinking it. i believe they are two girls- even though the previous owner said they are both boys- just by the size of their tail.

i have a basking area ordered from amazon, they have one of the magnetic(?) ones but it unfortunately just floats around and sometimes sinks, im not sure why.

let me know if there’s anything else i should be doing, im trying to research as much as i can to give these guys a nice life 🐢🤍


r/turtle 3h ago

Rehome Southern Painted Turtle for Adoption

1 Upvotes

Hi all,

We have a happy 2-year old Southern Painted Turtle 2 and a top fin algae eater fish. for adoption. We'd like to get them adopted in a home where they would be happy. We prefer someone who already has a 55 gallon or larger aquarium, since our turtle is used to this environment.

Thank you so much,

Dawud

Durham, NC


r/turtle 1d ago

Turtle Pics! Franklin may look happy but this is the look that says “I took two bites. Your eggs taste like dog crap, and you should be ashamed you even exist for making these. Take this plate away.”

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98 Upvotes

r/turtle 1d ago

Turtle ID/Sex Request Trying to find gender

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39 Upvotes

Hi there! About a month ago, I bought a 3- to 4-year-old turtle (the employees couldn’t be more specific for some reason), and I’m curious about its gender. I’d really appreciate some help!


r/turtle 5h ago

Turtle ID/Sex Request What species?

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1 Upvotes

Hi Guys! I'm about to get a new turtle today! She's a female 17 years old, but I don't know what species she is! This is the only picture the person who has her send me!


r/turtle 19h ago

Seeking Advice Reflecting

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13 Upvotes

On these rainy days I have noticed that my turtle likes to look out the window, I don't know if it's normal.


r/turtle 6h ago

Seeking Advice Baby Musk Turtle stays in shall water all day

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1 Upvotes

I'm new in this field so I don't know if this is normal. I received him/ her yesterday and everything was fine, I don't know if I'm too paranoid or smn but today since I woke up (I'm from Europe), the baby is all the time in a shallow area under a rock. I also received him with smn strange on the neck, any suggestions of what could possibly be, and if it's normal he/she is acting like this?


r/turtle 16h ago

Seeking Advice Help with baby red ear slider

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5 Upvotes

Hello everyone, my girlfriend got some turtles a couple of weeks ago. they have been fine but she’s noticed that one has a yellow line forming on its back, is this normal? All advice is appreciated


r/turtle 7h ago

Seeking Advice Hello. Can someone help me here?

1 Upvotes

So my red eared slider only uses one eye, he/she uses the right eye but for some reason his/her left eye is always closed. We managed to see only a little bit of it it was i think white. If you guys could help me it will help me out a lot, thank you!


r/turtle 8h ago

Turtle ID/Sex Request can anyone id these turtles for me?

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1 Upvotes

these were taken in patras, greece a few days ago


r/turtle 18h ago

Turtle ID/Sex Request What type of turtle is this

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5 Upvotes

Help


r/turtle 21h ago

Turtle ID/Sex Request Need Help with ID

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6 Upvotes

Found this poor guy in a storage unit and decided to keep him just wanna know what he is. Any help is appreciated!!


r/turtle 22h ago

Turtle ID/Sex Request What gender are my turtles?

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6 Upvotes

I have a yellow belly slider and a red-eared slider (I think) and would like to know their gender. They’re both 10+ years old. Thanks! 🐢