yellow belly turtle question . UK?

VERY VAGUE I SHALL BE!
You need a large, 25- 100 Litre tank, (as YBS grow very big!)
You need a basking spot lamp, usually an over hang hood or a clamp- lamp, that can house a 50- 100W bulb, (try either Exo- Terra or T-Rex brands as they are the best on the market).
You also have the option of a halogen strip bulb, that hangs horizontal above he tank. They are not needed but make the tank look good.
Some minimal decorations would be good, to keep your turtles curious + keen!
Try not to use gravel, as turtles are incredibly filthy with their food, and most filters can't effectively clean turtle substrate.

Filters- try using either a powerful internal filter, or a good external canister filter. The latter are very expensive, but work incredibly well. Try Eheim or Fluval brands...

Food wise, very simple: Protein and lots of it! Shrimp, prawns, pellets, heart, kidney, liver, insects, worms,,, All are good. Try to use vegetables as well, such as lettuce, (not iceberg though), tomatoes, peas, carrots etc.

All I can say really is do lots and lots of research concerning YBS as there is a lot of info out there on the Internet... Have fun...

I have a yellow bellied slider in my community tank and hes a very active little guy. Well there a very easy turtle to maintain basically your gonna need to start out with a 20 - 30 gal tank. The rule goes 10 gals of water for every 1inch of turtle. Your gonna need a really really good filter (turtles are very dirty). Aside from an awsome filter they need weekly water changes( its very inportant to keep there water very clean). Your alson gonna need a heat/basking lamp and clamp. Also they need a UVA/UVB light for healthy shell growth. I would advise you to get a tank heater as well cause it gets chilly over there. Also lots of plants, a turtle dock where they can bask on. As far as food goes you can feed them a commertial pellet diet but its nice to change up their diet every once ina while. For instance i give my shrimp, crickets, fish(live in the tank) live aquatic plants. (they love duckweed). Also make sure you feed the veggies and fruits too. Be careful what lettus you give them iceburg is bad!!!!! Just make sure you take 5-10 minutes everyday to check him out to make sure he has no infections, open wounds, swollen eyes, or bubbles coming from his nose. Also check your turtles underbelly and make sure its not soft and the top part as well. I hope this helps you get started. Remember turtles are expensive over time and as they get bigger there habitats need to get bigger too. They live in captivity about 10-15 years so they are a commitment. Do alot of reasearch and make sure you take him to a vet if anything goes wrong.

I live near Durham and there is a neat aquatics shop there. They sell alsorts including different types of turtles. The shop is called Fish Alive and they aslo have a website! Good Luck! :)

Most of the info for REs will apply to YBS.

A brief YBS care sheet http://www.austinsturtlepage.com/Care/cs-yellowbelly.htm

A wonderful free to download book
Captive Care of North American Water Turtles
http://www.lulu.com/product/download/captive-care-of-north-american-water-turtles/1646680

ask the workers in the pet store

http://www.flickr.com/photos/29035692@N03/sets/72157620975823702/

Contact rescues sites…and vets ..in your city ,state, or country
For land or aquatic turtles:
http://www.anapsid.org/reslider.html


Austinsturtlepage.com’ has all info on care and feeding RESCUING and PICTURES for all LAND and AQUATIC turtles.
*** Ten gallons per inch of each turtle!! Sliders, westerns, eastern’s, cooter’s , midland, painted, map, yellow bellied ,are all are basically the same and require the same basic care.
If you are sold a turtle under 4” then it is illegal and gives of a sickness called salmonella.
They will bite VERY hard. Under 4" they carry a disease called 'salmonella'. So you should wash after every handling ANY size turtle or reptile anyway.
** EACH 4" turtle needs a 55 gallon tank to start anything would be cruel. Two turtles 75 to 100 gallons.
***And my pictures don't lie. All ages and all sizes get along as long as their is allot for SWIM ROOM and PLENTY TO EAT! T
They can become cannibalistic if you have 2 or more turtles and a small environment. They will kill off the smallest and then fight for the tank for themselves. Mine get along cause they have an abundance of food to eat...always. I buy 1000 plus fish a month plus the fruits and veggies.
They NEED calcium and protein they get it from the fish meat and the fish bones. Drop 30 or 50 or so feeder guppies or small goldfish or in the tank and watch them disappear in a few days!
Did you know that they need to bask under a reptile light UVA/UVB for up to 8 hrs a day for the vitamin D that they need to grow.
TOSS in a bird cattle bone in the water for calcium that will promote better shell growth, it will dissolve real slowly and if they eat it that’s fine!!
**Remember, you need a heater...set at 83 / 85 degrees. If water is cold they will stop eating!
Plus I also feed dried cubed blood worms or tubiflex worms or pellets at least 5 times a week for my five..
They can have garden worms which I collect after a good rain and dump them in the pond, also meal worms, snails, crickets, flies, crayfish small frogs, slugs, tadpoles, ghost shrimp , dragon flies and anything that moves, but only as a treat.
They need leafy greens Romaine, Butter lettuce. (Iceberg and cabbage are bad for them, any other leafy greens will do) for vitamin A that they need at least 4 to 5 times a week.
They love grapes and strawberries and squash , apples cut up.. drop in water a few pieces at a time.
**** If these are hatchlings a 1” and a tad over they may need to have their live food half dead by leaving the fish out of water for a few minutes (10minutes) and put in the tank. That way the baby can get the meat he needs and the fish can’t out run the baby turtle.
Plus ‘some leafy green’ and vitamin A ‘fruits’ cut up a COUPLE times a week.’ Swollen cloudy eyes comes from lack of Vitamin A. Which we all need for good eyes.

These turtles in captivity do not. They cannot hear well and they feel you coming by the vibrations each foot step take, and by shadows they see.

So they need a turtle basking dock.
**Gravel larger than they can swallow, allot larger.
Better no gravel at all, easier to clean.
Their water needs to be clean otherwise the get sick easily from dirty water caused by their poop allot.
You need a GREAT filter system depending on the tank in a 60 gallon my girls were in one year’s ago. I used two double sided marine or penguin filters…It really helped keep it cleaner!
Size for basic aquatic turtle is approx Body length: 6-8" is average for males, up to 12 inches max for females, but average is about 9 to 10“ in captivity. Life span: 15-25+ year’s plus. Males have the longer front nails and are used in mating. Are considered mature at about 5 yrs old. You can’t start sexing till about 3” across.
Real mating happens in May through June and hatchlings within 90 days. Eggs are laid in soil. If laid in water they will die. Mating dance happens all year long with my 5 !

They sleep at the bottom of rivers, streams. lakes or ponds or your tank to avoid predators like coyotes, foxes, owls, hawks, possums, raccoons and even some wide mouth bass and us humans.
***Some sicknesses they get easily like shell Rot is actual holes rotting through the shell.
**Respiratory sickness, lopsided swimming, coughing, vomiting, blowing bubbles from their nose. Treatment is 10 days of injections of Baytril (enrofloxacin) liquid into the front legs. To do this, you must consult a vet to get the antibiotic and the proper dosage. Do not guess on the dose.** Increase water to 85 degrees.
Swollen or cloudy eyes due to lack of vitamin A fruits and veggies.
Petco has drops.
Fungus white cotton patches on their skin.
Metabolic bone disease means an inadequate calcium and/or a vitamin D3 deficiency. The earliest symptoms are the softening of the plastron, underside of the shell.
Septicemia is the fancy medical word for blood poisoning. What