painted turtles

I have a couple of painted turtles. Not that I wanted to raise turtles, just that my daughter had brought them home from camping and has convinced me that is is her project and she will take care of them. Anyone who is a parent here knows how that goes, and she is starting school soon.
Can anyone give me some starter basic husbandry advice?
What do they eat? We have gotten them to eat some greens and a cricket or two but that is it.
Should they be mostly in water or out of water?
Just need push start into the right direction.
Thanks

Hi,


Well, your daughter has herself a long project. You can expect the painted to live for 20-30 years. Good little project, eh.

Well, what you need is mostly water (about 30 gallon tank for small turtle under 4" and 50 gallon or more for bigger ones) and a basking area with a nice hot lamp. You should mostly feed it turtle pellets (i.e. Reptomin, mazuri or Nutrafin) and green leafy veggies or aquarium plants.

Here is a link for a caresheet for Painteds:
http://www.austinsturtlepage.com/Care/care-painteds.htm

Cheers,
JJ

pond time? how far away did she go camping? if its not too far consider a pond a nice 300 gal or so... the turts would love it and they would feel much more at home

just give the turts alot of places to hide and plenty of room to walk around and bask and enough water depth all that good stuff stock the pond with feeder fish for them and maybe feed them they might get use to the special treatment


pond will be cheaper in the long run instead of buying tanks and upgrading later then putting them outside when they get HUGE if not already HUGE

good luck

hi they are easy to care for as long as there basis care are meet get a small kids swimming pool and add water feed then lots of fish and fish pellets for pond fish make sure you have a basking area for them to sun workship any other question let me know bruce

the most important thing to get for your turtle aside from food, water, ect. is a UVB light. turtles CAN'T live without it. you can use it in conjunction with a regular 60Watt light bulb. make both about a foot away from the tank, and make sure they are over rocks. But keep in mind the turts should have an area with no heat so they can cool off. Second, you need about a 30 gallon tank. what i use for my painted turtles hatchlings is a LONG & WIDE rubbermaid bin. Depending on whether you have babies or adults the height will vary. for babies it doesn't have to be very tall but adults can CLIMB WELL. be sure the walls a high for adults. aside from all this info, turtles are not just a project, if they are adults, I'd let them go in a nearby pond or lake, if they are babies, they are still able to be tamed. Just remember, Vet bills are going to be usually close to $100. Honestly, I think you should go onto www.ask.com It's a website that answeres any question. just type in, "how do i care for a turtle?" But the best thing to do is to probably let them go. Eventually she's going to get bored of them, and also, throughout all expenses leading to pricing, you'll be paying easily over $150 to care for these. Unless you want to be taking care of these when you're little girls in collage, think otherwise. The populations declining for painters, you should let them go. Just think if someone took you out of your home? Your girl may not understand now, but she will later on. Hope this helps!!!!