The Rosco Report + 1

I have two pictures to share today the first is little Rosco the Frog who has finally gotten his front legs. He still has his tail though you can't see it in this shot because of the fake plant.

You Grow Rosco

This second one is of my old friend Fitz once again trying to thwart my computing efforts as he snuggles down for a nap on my chair leg.

Awww How could I make him move I had to save blogging for another day.

The other day I came face to face with my turtle’s future self, a lady had gone jogging one morning and saw a large turtle in the road. She decided it didn’t look healthy and bless her kind heart wanted to take it home and take care of it. She brought the turtle in a large cooler to Petco (where I work) and asked what she needed to take care of it. The first thing I told her was that what she had in her cooler was a Red Eared Slider. Then told her the best thing she could do for him was to find the closes water to where she found him and release him back into the wild. From there I began to explain everything she would need to keep him as a pet. Not surprisingly she decided to return him to the wild. By the way the Turtle she brought in had a shell that was about a foot long. The original tank we bought for Rex (the one sold as an aquatic turtle kit) was only 12 inches wide and would have never been big enough for the turtle in the cooler.

Red Eared Sliders are relatively cheap to buy, and the young do look particularly delightful, but it is surprising that many people buy them with no knowledge of what they have bought, and not even providing the bare essentials. Many places sell them at an illegal size (under 4 inches) in a little fish bowl like this one.

This set up is completely inadequate for a Red Eared Slider giving him no room to grow and none of the lighting he requires.

Aquatic turtles like sliders need fairly elaborate and expensive housing. They need regular exposure to ultraviolet (UV) light, so pricey bulbs designed for reptiles that produce UVA and UVB light are needed for turtle tanks. Without this light, they can develop metabolic bone disease. Turtles are very messy, and even with a good filtration system you will still have to clean in regularly. Remember turtles have to drink the water they are living in. Their tank should be deep enough and wide enough to allow swimming and a place to get out of the water to bask. Here is a list of equipment you will need if you have or are thinking about getting ANY aquatic turtle:

A suitable sized tank
Heater and thermostat
Filters and air pump
Light bulbs
Suitable depth of swimming water
Dry area
Thermometer

Though aquariums are good for young turtles, make sure you get the largest one you can afford to help prevent the need to keep buying larger and larger ones. At their full grown size the will need a tank that holds about 100 gallons. One of the owners I've talked to used a pre-formed plastic pond (like you get at home depot) to build an indoor pond for his turtle. You might also consider putting him outside part of the year if you have pond in your yard that has a good fence to keep predators out.

Now I'm not tell you all this to keep you from buying a Slider, I love Rex and think he is fascinating to watch. I love when I come into the kitchen first thing in the morning he is happy to see me. Yeah I know he knows I'm there to feed him but it's still fun to watch him climbing around trying to get my attention. Opps started getting off track LOL, I'm telling you this for the turtles sake. Many people take them home and when they get to big dump them. Once these turtles have lived with people they CAN NOT be returned to the wild and expect to live very long.

Don't feel down and blue if you have discovered after reading this that Red Eared Sliders are to much for you to deal with. I have some alternative you might want to consider. They will still need the whole aquatic turtle set up but do to their smaller sizes you can buy a smaller tank. The First is the African Side Neck Turtle:

I borrowed this picture from California Turtle and Tortoise Club I home they don't mind. If you want to see more pictures check out their site (click here). This is the larger of the two I'm suggesting with an adult size of 6 to 8 inches.

The second aquatic turtle I'm suggesting is the Three Striped Mud Turtle:

This photo I borrowed from Pbase.com you can visit them (click here) It's a photo host and share site.
Thise cute little guys only get 3 to 4 inches. So in the first tank I had Rex in I could probably happily house 4 or 5 of these little guys.

I think anyone who is thinking of getting any kind of pet should visit their local library first. Read everything available for the pet your considering. That will help keep surprises to a minimum and insure that you have a healthy long lived pet.

New Tank For Rex The Red Eared Slider

A little bit of advice for anyone condsidering a Red Eared Slider. Double Check the food lable.

Not the best picture sorry but you might notice the two red circles. One lable says Growth Formula the other says Maintance Formula. Make sure when you grab your food you get the Maintance Formula not the Growth Formula. We made that mistake for you and the results is that we had to go and get Rex a new Tank sooner then planned all because I wasn't paying enough attention.

Presenting Rex's new "Indoor Pond"

This thing is about twice the size of his original.


He still has some growing to do but now he will do it slower and will still have plenty of room.

I have more to say about owning a Red Eared Slider but it will have to wait until tomorrow since I have to go to work shortly.

Cleaner Hands

I was helping out with the fish today and one of the cleaning shrimps wouldn't come out of his bag. When I reached in to get him out he decided my hand needed cleaning. It was pretty cool I could actually feel him tuging on my skin.
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Good News and Bad News

First the Good News Rosco Finally started his metamorphosis. That's right he got his back legs and is on the way to being a frog. Woo Hoo. It's a little hard to see in the pictures and I had a heck of a time getting a picture of him at all. We added some plants to his water so he would have something to eat while we were on vacation and the Duck weed kept getting in the way. The Duck weed is the little green flecks on the top of the water.

Now before I get to the bad news. Here is a shot of Kermit in his new habitat. He is sitting on the rock in the middle of the water.

Now of course for the BAD News.... Kermits habitat is leaking.... that is to say the water is leaking over into the land part of his home. All that hard work to give him land and water and I have to start over.


Here is a second shot of him in the water.... see the funny color of the water? That's because the water is leaching into the dirt and causing everything to have a brown tint. So Kermit is going to have to go back with Rosco and I will probably have to put something on the lid to weigh it down so he doesn't knock it off... he is a pretty strong jumper.

Small Wonders

Something wonderful happened today. At the pet store where I work a mamma guinea pig had 4 little babies and lucky me I've got pics to share. Sorry about the fuzziness I was trying hard not to disturb the new mamma.

A sleepy hamster

I'm not dead I just sleep that way
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