The Colourful Red Eared
Slider Turtle

It might seem hard to believe, but a red eared slider turtle can live for up to fourty years! That's three times as long as a dog. If you give your child a baby slider for her tenth birthday, it may still be alive when she is approaching retirement age! This is a serious consideration when purchasing one of these pets. The saying "a pet is for life, not just for Christmas" has a much longer term meaning for turtles!

Sadly most pet slider turtles don't even get close to this age. This is most often due not to a lack of affection but a lack of preparation. A slider requires a well set up turtle aquarium in order to thrive.

Get A Good One

When you buy your slider, either from a licenced breeder or from a pet store, look for a brightly coloured turtle that is active. Dull colour and little or no movement could mean a sick turtle. Also look at the state of the tank in the store. If it's dirty and crammed full of turtles there's an increased chance of buying an unwell turtle. Also, the people running the store have little or no regard for their animals.

Slider Diet

These little guys will eat just about anything, so a range of foods is the way forward. When young they have a preference for meat. In the wild they eat plant matter, carrion and sometimes live prey such as small fish, snails and tadpoles. If you can have them in a big enough tank, adding some cheap and fast moving aquarium fish will greatly improve the quality of life for your slider. The little turtle will have something to chase, and if the tank is big enough and has hiding places for the fish they are unlikely to be caught.

There's also the added benefit of the fish feeding on the food scraps and droppings of the turtles, which will make your life a bit easier when it comes to cleaning the tank.

Kids' Health...And Yours!

Pet turtles carry around all sorts of bacteria and other things with and in them. Most of these are harmless, but some are not. The Salmonella bacterium is one that comes with the red eared slider. This is no problem if you wash your hands after handling the turtle or after cleaning out its tank, but if you don't you could get very, very sick.

This bug is the reason pet red eared slider turtles have to be at least 4 inches long (8.8 centimetres) to be sold legally; this is to stop kids putting baby turtles in their mouths. Your kids also need to learn to wash hands after holding or playing with the slider.

Species Summary:

Adult size: up to 30 cm (1 foot)
Adult weight: Up to 10 kilograms (22 pounds)
Clutch size: 2 to 30, depending on female size
Clutches in a season: average of about 3, maximum of 5
Years to maturity: 5 years or from 5 inches in length, which depends on diet
Lifespan: 20-25 years average, maximum of 40 years
Diet: omnivorous including water plants, carrion, insects and snails
Scientific name: Trachemys scripta elegans

A Couple Of Notes...

It is important to remember that these creatures grow to quite a decent size. As their size increases their colors change and the adult slider may well be quite plain to look at.

Also, there are laws regarding this species in different countries. For example, they are illegal in Australia due to their invasiveness and the possibility they may carry with them diseases local fauna cannot cope with. There are heavy penalties in Australia for keeping or selling this animal.

AKA...

The red eared slider turtle is sometimes called the redeared slider, the red slider, or the red ear slider. These names all refer to the same species, the one shown in the pictures here.