are babies safe with adults?

[synnottpaul]

hello, I am new here, this site is great.
I have two large red eard sliders about 15 years old, and a friend gave me two babies. Could any anyonw tell me if it is safe to keep baby terrapins with the adults?
any advice would be great.

[Adrya]

When I get new baby turtles, I tend to keep the babies in their own seperate tank/enclosure so the larger turtles don't pick on them and hog all of the food that is necessary for the babies to get a good start.

	Hog Island Boa hogg

[synnottpaul]

Cheers sounds like a good plan.
I keep them in a large pool in my garden for a few hours each day. Do you think it would be safe to keep the babies there with the adults?
I fear that the large female would eat them, her shell is about 8inches, and the babies are about 2inches, they would be an easy meal if she got hungry!

[Adrya]

I probably wouldn't even put the babies in the same pool with the adults, either. If the babies were more along the lines of 4 inches shell length, they would be fine to put in with the adults.

[synnottpaul]

thanks snakewoaman. I hope that I'm asking too much, I am thinking of setting up a pond to keep my red eard sliders in, and I was woundering if you knew of any water plants that I should use/avoid?
and if i did set it up, would it be safe to keep firebelly newts and frogs
there too?

[Adrya]

Ask as many questions as you need.

If you set up a permanent pond to keep your turtles in, be sure it's absolutely escape proof, but make a basking area or two in the pond out of rocks/bricks or whatever you choose. Rubber pond liner I find the best to use as you can make any size or shape of pond you want. Frogs would probably be fine, but I think the turtles would try and eat the firebelly newts. Not sure about that interaction as I've never had newts in with any of my turtles.

I have kept painted turtles in their own pond with waterplants, but never tried with red-eareds, even though I have quite a few. The eastern painteds pretty much left the plants alone. I used pickerel rush, water lettuce and water hyacinth. I also had a water lily in there but they tend to be fairly fragile.

You can use:
-water lettuce (they might munch on the roots, but they generally leave it alone because of the fuzzy texture of the leaves)
-Lotus (They might eat the floating leaves, but the leaves that stand up out of the water should be high enough that they can't get to them. The stems are prickly and tough, not prickly enough to hurt your turtles, but I think it's enough to keep them from munching)
-Water rushes (any kind I think is good, but for extra protection I get some thin bamboo sticks about 1/2 inch thick or a little less , cut them in long pieces and stick them all the way around in the pots in the dirt so that water can still flow through, but the gaps are small enough between each stick so the turtles can't get their head in and munch. And they can't grip anywhere to pull themselves up, but make the sticks long enough so the turtles can't get overtop and munch. You can do this with any shallow water plant, like lotus, different varieties of cattail and other rushes, even pickerel rush. And the plants still look relatively attractive even with the bamboo sticks.)

I avoid underwater plants as they tend to tear up easily and make a big mess and clog up pumps/filters, and any kind of turtle finds them tasty... like anacharis and other pondweeds/riverweeds.

Since I keep all of my different species of turtles together now, I hardly have any plants in my pond since my biggest turtles are herbivorous and literally eat EVERYTHING, though they still tend to leave the water lettuce alone except for eating the roots, yet the plants still thrive. I can't have any water hyacinth in there because they eat every bit of it. I really haven't paid much attention as to how herbivorous my red-eareds are but they don't seem to be as interested in plants as my red-bellied turtles are.

Hope that helps.

Here's a picture of mine that I built all by myself last summer, it's not the most recent. I rebuilt the waterfall this year so it's completely different looking than in the picture. The rocks are big enough and hang over the edges far enough that the turtles can't get any back foot hold on anything. They can only pull themselves up so far with their front legs. But they generally are happy enough that they stay in there.

[synnottpaul]

Thank you for the tips. you are a great help.
Your pond looks awesome! I’m jealous!
Summer is over; I think I’ll wait till spring before I build it,
The winters here in Ireland tend to be very cold, and my terrapins would
Not be accustomed to it. I am going to spend a few months designing it.

Another Question I have is about UV lights. This might sound stupid.
Would a UV light bought in a pet store be the same as one I bought in a gadget shop?
‘The kind that makes things glow in the dark ect…’
As I am low on cash and I wasn’t expecting new terrapins.
I asked a few people but they are unsure.

[yousuredo]

A DARKLIGHT-BLACKLIGHT isn't the same at all as a UV LIGHT

[synnottpaul]

thanks.
Good choice in music!