Tips On How to Care for Your Baby Yellow Belly Turtle

Hello everyone! Having pets can be a great benefit and there are so many different types of pets you can have to help improve your quality of life. Right now I'm going to focus on the yellow bellied turtle. These guys you normally see in a flea market or pet store being sold as tiny babies, usually barely larger than a quarter. We actually found ours on our property (I nearly stepped on him he was so tiny) and through trial and error, advice from experts and lots of research I've managed to give our new little guy a happy new home. This is little Mikey (like the tmnt turtle)

At first I thought he was a red eared slider since I found him in the wild but after research and showing pictures to a couple of store owners it was to my relief (since red ear sliders are an illegal invasive species in Florida) that he is not. He lives in a 10 gallon tank (we will transfer him as he grows bigger) and has gotten so used to us now he will eat out of our hands. Now I am by no means an expert, these tips are what I've learned from experience and much research. So lets get started!

Tip One: Environment Make sure you have your basics before bringing home your turtle. A proper aquarium, food, ramp, rocks (if you choose)and filter. These are the essentials for a turtle. I would recommend a 10 gallon aquarium or larger since your turtle will outgrow a smaller environment. The saying that these turtles will only grow as much as their environment will allow is a myth. I know this from experience of having turtles long before. I had bought a turtle at a flea market and got one of those tiny cute little plastic habitats for it. Within months he was too big for it. So make sure you start off at a reasonable size. Having the right food is also important. We rotate between the pellets and dried insects. No more than 2-3 per day. Turtles are opportunistic eaters and will keep eating if you keep feeding them. This can cause them to outgrow their shell which can cause severe complications or even death. So make sure you don't over feed it. Turtles are semi-aquatic creatures so makes sure he has a place he can dry off at. Being in the water at all times can cause problems for their skin and shell. A ramp or island of sorts is ideal along with a heat lamp. Mine loves to bask in his heat lamp and I often catch him stretched out on his little ramp.

If you want to layer the bottom of your aquarium with something, DO NOT USE GRAVEL! Like mentioned previously, they are opportunistic eaters and may try to eat bits of the gravel which can get lodged in their intestines and kill them. Use large rocks, marbles or stones if you want to add a bottom layer to your tank.

A filter is a must. Without a filter, you'll need to change the water almost daily in order to keep a clean and healthy environment for your turtle. Filters will help reduce the amount of water changes you'll need to do.There are alot of filter options out there too. For ours,I use cascade 300 and I only change the water once a month, the same time I replace the filter cartridge. I use a siphon to get up all the excess waste that get caught between the rocks and will only do a 50% water change.

Tip Two: Sanitation After handling your turtle or doing water changes make sure you thoroughly clean your hands. Turtles can carry salmonella and they create a lot of waste in their water so keeping yourself clean afterwards is a must!

Tip Three: Tank Mates Now from what I've read and heard from others this is more or less a hit or miss. Given the fact that turtles create alot of waste in the water it can make the water not an ideal place for most other fish to live in plus, again, turtles are opportunistic eaters so they may try to take a bite out of anything you put into the tank. But there are a few that can work with your turtle if you are careful and keep an eye on it well enough. One for example is the common Pleco fish (algae eater). These guys have a tougher exterior than most fish and are surprisingly fast if they need to swim away from a bite. We've had ours as long as we've had Little Mikey and they've done great together. Plus our Pleco (Specs)seems to be outgrowing Little Mikey so he may be a bit too intimidated to try. Another good tank mate are Ghost shrimp. These guys are very cheap (I get mine 10/$1) and since they are harder to see the turtle generally ignores them. Plus having these two species help keep the tank clean of algae! Bonus. Another one I've tried was the cory catfish. These are another type of bottom feeder that don't get very big and are fast swimmers. I had them in with Little Mikey for about a month and they did great with him before we decided to move them to our 55gal tank. We also had a rainbow shark with the turtle and other fish. Even though he also did well, rainbow sharks are semi aggressive and territorial and being in such a small tank with other fish we decided to also move him with the catfish to the larger tank. Now fish we tried that didn't work out so well - Fancy guppies. They were a nice snack for Little Mikey. I would not recommend adding guppies with a turtle or any slower swimming fish with bright colors.

Tip Four: Live Plants You can add live plants to your turtle aquarium but I will tell you now: They won't last. Turtles love to eat plants and will munch on any live plants you add to your tank. Little Mikey's aquarium had live plants for only a couple of weeks before he devoured or killed them off. Also depending on the plants, they can clog your filter if they get loosened. You will also need to be careful with artificial plants as well given your turtle may not be able to tell the difference and may try to eat those as well. We have some plastic grass as well as a tougher artificial plant but not too much. These are just some of the basics we've learned on how to make a happy little home for our new friend. I hope this helps you in the future and in deciding on your new friend as well. Cheers!