Not too long ago my Mom’s boyfriend came home with two baby (hatchling) Red Eared Slider turtles that resemble these:

Now, we owned a Western Painted turtle that was purchased in 1988 or 1999 that unfortunately passed away at the end of last year and he was around 22 years old. My Mom missed Timmy the turtle so thats why we ended up with 2 babies.

What we didn’t know until now is that these turtles are different from out previous one because not only do they get bigger than Timmy did but, they are also more timid and require more maintenance. When we got Timmy we followed all the instructions given to us by the pet store which was a huge failure! The tank size suggested was way too small, they said he needed a tank with just water in it & no dry land, no heater, no filter or anything.

When turtle care started to become better known and information began popping up on the internet we learned better. Now, I am learning all sorts of things about caring for this new type of turtle and discovering how big tank plans need to be to house two turtles together.

Right now they are in a small tank filled with about 3 inches of water because they are each only an inch long and are just learning how to float & swim for an extended amount of time. I also have a nice heater & some basking rocks and a light / heat lamp. Yesterday I purchased a small floating dock on ebay to replace the rocks that I have in there now. I also bought a new type of food, a fish net to skim left over food out of the tank and a nice filter & cartridges.

I have been doing partial water changes everyday to keep the water decent until the filter gets here because turtles eat very messily and of course they are using the bathroom in water they have to live in. But, I already have a larger tank ready for them to move into when the get a little bigger. I am checking out some other even bigger options for a while down the road and I am trying to figure out how we will get a 100+ gallon tank in the house and where the heck we will put it lol.

Anyway the season premiere of Bones has started so I am off!