#Pond slider professional#

What sets this site apart from the rest? Well, for one, ReptiFiles offers reptile care information that you can actually trust. I mainly focus on writing comprehensive reptile care manuals, but you’ll also find abbreviated care sheets, product reviews, resource directories, and the occasional blog post here. What is ReptiFiles®? is a compilation of factual, science-based research from the best reptile care resources in the world, packaged in one neat website. I find reptiles so wonderfully captivating, challenging, and diverse that I have dedicated my career to understanding them better. I am also currently working on my master’s degree in natural history-based exotic animal husbandry from West Liberty University! I have kept a variety of exotic pets for the majority of my life, but I have worked with reptiles specifically for over 10 years.

#Pond slider professional#

My name is Mariah Healey, professional reptile husbandry researcher and consultant. Their “aquatic ear” is so sensitive that researchers speculate that red-eared sliders may use underwater sound communication with other members of their species. They’re just covered by skin! And they don’t just have any old ears.

Although you can’t see their ears, turtles still have them.

That being said, with proper care, this turtle can be a personable, fairly interactive pet, best suited for life as a display animal. Although incredibly hardy and adaptable, red-eared slider care is not easy or inexpensive - in fact, they require a lot of preparation and ongoing maintenance to keep successfully. Red-eared sliders are arguably one of the most abused species of reptile in captivity, often severely neglected and/or irresponsibly released into the wild, which is one of the reasons why they are so prolifically invasive. The red-eared slider is actually just one of three subspecies of Pond Slider:Īlthough this is technically a red-eared slider care guide, it can be used as a reference for caring for any of the three subspecies of Trachemys scripta. They have long lifespans of 20-30 years, although 40+ years is not unheard of.

Red-eared sliders can grow up to 12” (31cm) long as adults, although there are reports that they can grow larger, and females tend to be larger than males. Like other aquatic turtles, they have webbed feet adapted for swimming and strong, sharp, beak-like jaws that facilitate their omnivorous diet. They also have a yellow plastron (belly plate) with dark spots, striped green and yellow skin, and most notably, a red stripe that runs behind each eye (thus their name). They have a smooth, oval, bright green shell as juveniles which darkens to brown, olive, or dark green with age. As a semi-aquatic animal, they need lots of water in their habitat, but they also need dry areas to bask, such as rocks, logs, and other surfaces above the water. It inhabits ponds, lakes, swamps, creeks, streams, and slow-flowing rivers - wherever water can be consistently found.

The red-eared slider is a diurnal, semi-aquatic freshwater turtle native to parts of the United States.