Our New Yellow Bellied Slider Hatchling

[kurgan]

Still unamed - any suggestions?







I think he is a he - I compared tails and anal openings as best as I could but it's not 100%.

He's gorgeous but I'm looking forward to him bulking up a little, he's so fragile.

What do you reccomend for a feeding schedule - there seems to be conflicting information on the care sheets I've found. At the moment I'm planning on giving him a few pieces of high quality 'turtle chow' (dried shrimp, fish and mussels) daily supllemented by the occasional piece of fresh fish/prawns and some lettuce. Some sources seem to prefer feeding more 2-3 times a week.

[JLC]

Awwww....what a cutie!


Sorry I don't know enough about their care to offer feeding suggestions. My sister has two red-ear sliders that she's raised from hatchlings. I don't know how often she fed them, but I do know that she found feeding them in a separate container from the one they lived in was wayyy easier and helped keep the water from getting all mucked up.

[Tybalt]

I am not a turtle guy at all but those beady little eyes melt my heart! LOL so so adorable. Good luck and congratulations!!

-Danny

[ejcvixen]

Hi, I have two red belly cooter hatchlings that have been on this schedule for two months now. I always have some red leaf lettuce(their fav), kale, romaine, collard greens,etc in their tank. Most captive turtles get to much protein in their diets, yes even hatchlings, so use veggies as a filler. Every other day I put them in a small plastic dish with 4 turtle pellets each. I put the pellets in before the turtles to give them a chance to soak, because I use an electrolyte supplement in this water. Lots of vitamins and minerals for healthy turtles Once a week I give them a half dozen gut loaded crickets instead of the turtle pellets. Working well so far. Active turts with no vitamin A deficency(oozing or stuck shut eyes) no shell pyramiding or bad sheds. Caused by to much protein and fat. Hope this helps, btw don't forget to dechlorinize the water you use in the feeding pool if you use one. I like it because they poop right after they eat so it stays out of their home tank.

Adorable little turt, mine our named Raphael and Lucy.

[turtlesrcool]

well if its still unnamed, then these are the two names that automatically popped into my head when i was reading it, if its a girl- ruby, and if its a boy- johnathan, jonathan, johnothan however u wanna spell it... thats a very cute turtle.... im getting two yellow bellied sliders in about 2 weeks so im excited.

[Boneyman]

That's a Florida Red Bellied Cooter, not a Yellow Bellied Slider. It's pretty hard to tell the difference between them if you aren't used to them. Also you can't sex them at this age. It'll need to grow to about 4" before you can tell. Males have longer "fore-claws" than females. These things also get huge, females grow to like 13" but they're fun to watch nonetheless. Feed it some pellets everyday for the first year. Then every 2-3 days after that. Make sure to feed it veggies as well like romaine lettuce, avoid spinach.

[Michelle.C]

It's been quite a while since I kept Turtles, but I generally offered hatchlings food every other day to three times a week. Offering veggies on a daily basis isn't a problem. The problem occurs when you feed them a fatty diet, too often.

http://www.austinsturtlepage.com/Care/care.htm
Has an awesome care sheet.

[Melicious]

So totally adorable.

Male: Arnold

Female: Ramona

Just such a serious face.

[Beardedragon]

Hi, I have two red belly cooter hatchlings that have been on this schedule for two months now. I always have some red leaf lettuce(their fav), kale, romaine, collard greens,etc in their tank. Most captive turtles get to much protein in their diets, yes even hatchlings, so use veggies as a filler. Every other day I put them in a small plastic dish with 4 turtle pellets each. I put the pellets in before the turtles to give them a chance to soak, because I use an electrolyte supplement in this water. Lots of vitamins and minerals for healthy turtles Once a week I give them a half dozen gut loaded crickets instead of the turtle pellets. Working well so far. Active turts with no vitamin A deficency(oozing or stuck shut eyes) no shell pyramiding or bad sheds. Caused by to much protein and fat. Hope this helps, btw don't forget to dechlorinize the water you use in the feeding pool if you use one. I like it because they poop right after they eat so it stays out of their home tank.

Adorable little turt, mine our named Raphael and Lucy.

Its actually from the above and no UVB, with out it you will find any small turtle after a while deteriorate to where they will not open their eyes, stop swimming and stop eating. They will also get pyramiding and soft shell, a lot with alot of other things.


Now with that said... I have to ask the OP... What uvb do you provide... and what is his basking temp?

Cute little guy though! For food also give him snails ( Apple, Mystery, the common ones from petco) They LOVE snails! Also id look of a colorful breeder fish the get him, they will keep providing and its fun to go watch them chase after the fish

[Dragnbaron]

It's an awesome lil guy!
You won't be able to sex for a while, still. They need to be about 4" to sex them.
As for the name, i names mine Zamboni because he slid right on top of the water real slowly.