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kingfish
09-27-2009, 04:49 PM
winter is coming!!!! how many out there have turtles in their pond ..
i am in sw pa outside pittsburg zone 6
need some winter advice , ihave 4 res and 2 yellow bellied...
do you leave them out or bring them in? and if you bring them in what do you overwinter them


the one and only
kingfish

harleighgirl
09-27-2009, 05:53 PM
Thsi is my first year having a red slider and was wondering the same thing. I have been looking for a tank, i was thinking of bringing him in this winter, just trying to decide on what size to go with, i am thinking 55 gallon. He is about ten inches, around ten years old i was told. Wish i knew what the previous owners did with him, he was a rescue. Any answers would be appreciated also. Thanks......

gray cat
09-27-2009, 06:15 PM
kingfish very pretty pond & turtles. I have a Yellow Eared that stays inside. She is 4 inches now. I have her in a patio pond that is 45 gal. Her water is filtered 300 GPH. Heated to 78 degrees.
You can see her peeking over the front of the tank.:D:

kingfish
09-27-2009, 08:28 PM
thanx the pond is in year two...alot moved from my first pond i built for my mom..she moved , moved the pond to my house ...increasing the size a bit ...
the turtles were basicaly turtle rescue...
i think the res can winter outside, the yellow wont i believe . so my plan is to keep them in the pond till water tempertures go down to 50
and bring them in to the basement . keeping them in 50 degree water, some artificial light , but no food ..
a sorta artificial hibernation

okey , what do you think ? yea ,ney , or even a sugestion .


the one and only kingfish

premster
09-27-2009, 11:35 PM
mine come in for the winter . nice 30 gallon tank with heater and a light . what more can a sophisticated turtle want ..lol

jeffcopeland
09-28-2009, 08:27 AM
RES need a lot of water. You can get stock tanks up to 300 gallon consider one of those for indoors during the cold months

I have a 180 gallon aquarium and I'm planning on building a small indoor pond before this coming winter.

I hibernated a Common Musk and she didn't make it through hibernation so I've been relucted to try again even though some people have had success. A RES might do well if the pond is deep enough with a de-icer of course.

harleighgirl
09-28-2009, 11:20 AM
I am in Utah, today we are having record high temperatures, the weather is supposed to get up to 90, and tomorrow 89 then wed. and thursday gonna drop down in the low 50s. How is that big of a temp. change going to affect him, will it do anything at all. Do red sliders hibernate in the water then? I wasnt sure. I have noticed he has dug under my cat tail plant in the pond and i have seen him under there a couple of times.

jeffcopeland
09-28-2009, 02:21 PM
I am in Utah, today we are having record high temperatures, the weather is supposed to get up to 90, and tomorrow 89 then wed. and thursday gonna drop down in the low 50s. How is that big of a temp. change going to affect him, will it do anything at all. Do red sliders hibernate in the water then? I wasnt sure. I have noticed he has dug under my cat tail plant in the pond and i have seen him under there a couple of times.


RES will hibernate underwater but it would also help to have a soft muddy land area to dig into as an option for the turtle.

kingfish
09-28-2009, 04:03 PM
okey, lets talk ultimate solution is they stay out year round ...i believe the reds can survive outdoors. they are not native but they are around...the yellows will not unless i do some climate control..the plan is a two year plan ..next spring i plan phase three of the pond. adding a stram and 10 by 10 pond..i have a heater from my moms pond that will heat a thousand gal easilly to whatever temp i want .. then next winter put the turtles in the smaller heated pond , to about 50 degrees.
this year i plan to bring them in but the master plan is to keep them outside

okey what do you thik any sugestions,pros cons

jeffcopeland
09-28-2009, 09:57 PM
.i have a heater from my moms pond that will heat a thousand gal easilly to whatever temp i want .. then next winter put the turtles in the smaller heated pond , to about 50 degrees.



A heated pond outdoors in your area for turtles would be a disaster in winter. The turtles breath air unlike koi. They would most likely get a respiratory infection which could be fatal. The air temps would be extremely cold while the water stays warm. Not a good combination. You would need to heat the surrounding air by using a greenhouse for this to work

kingfish
09-29-2009, 07:47 AM
i can do that using 10 foot greenhouse plastic panels i could make a cover

kingfish
09-29-2009, 08:01 AM
it si looking more like to bring them in? at what temp do i bring them in and what temp do i keep them at ?

jeffcopeland
09-29-2009, 09:44 AM
it si looking more like to bring them in? at what temp do i bring them in and what temp do i keep them at ?

http://www.austinsturtlepage.com/Care/cs-yellowbelly.htm

http://www.austinsturtlepage.com/Care/caresheet-red_ear_slider.htm


A couple of caresheets above for indoor care.

1) You could try hibernation without a heater for the RES only

2)Heat the pond and add a greenhouse for the winter

3) Bring them all indoors to an aquarium or stock tank by the end of October before it get's really cold.

kingfish
09-29-2009, 10:53 AM
okey so far the plan is the yellows are coming in . i thinking of bringing three reds in and leaving one out this year .. with all good hopes things go well and all the reds winter outdoors next year .. the yellows to be continued . either way it would be easier to winter 2 turtles inside then six


the one and only

kingfish

jeffcopeland
09-29-2009, 11:02 AM
the one and only
kingfish


Kingfish, 38 posts since May 2004. What have you been up to?

kingfish
09-30-2009, 08:43 PM
i been around started with a preform my mom bought then built a nice 10x10 with aux ponds .then we had to move her to sigle level townhouse and i moved the pond to my new house .. been working on it for two years now with more exp planed

Mrunlucky07
10-02-2009, 03:57 PM
From what I have gathered over the past few years....both RES and YBS are very similar and should be able to hibernate if they are healthy. In the wild they usually dig into the mud and hibernate under the water in the pond banks/bottoms. I know a breeder in PA who I have purchased turtles off of and he keeps his aquatic turtles dry for the winter in boxes of leaves/soil. He says his attached garage stays between 32-40 deg on average in the winter.

For a pond you can fill a bin with a mix of mud/ leaves they can burrow into and winter over. You are better off if they actually hibernate in the cold rather than waking up and moving around.

I was told captive bred YBS would not be able to hibernate. Last year one of my 2 year old ybs escaped in August. I could not find her anywhere. In Va it generally rises above freezing during the day, but the first few inches of ground do freeze solid. Somehow she hibernated with a broken leg in the mud under my deck and reappeared in April. This year I will be overwintering my 2 larger YBS 6-8" for the first time, the smaller turtles under 4" I will be bringing in.

kingfish
10-02-2009, 05:09 PM
thanx for the info i think i am going to leave one of the reds out bring the yellows and the other three reds in for the year .. since they all was indoor
turtles until this year .. giving them one more year for aclamation

the one and only

kingfish

kingfish
03-16-2010, 03:59 PM
it has been a hard winter , but the crocus are coming and the pond is coming to life .. water temp up to 45 degrees today. the guys inside want to go out,
i plan to check weather end of week ..should be able to put them outside soon.. no sight of the ones i left in the pond ,but it is still pretty cloudy

kingfish
03-20-2010, 05:04 PM
it has been nice for the last couple days and never saw even a glimpse of the two guys in the pond. after a long search found both guys , sad to say they did not make it.. the girls inside are becoming quite nactive ,as so are the fish.

gray cat
03-21-2010, 04:49 PM
So sorry to hear about your turtles.

JimboCraig
03-25-2010, 11:14 AM
I hate to hear bad news like this...........I'm so sorry for you loss. I know it hurts to fish out a turtle that didn't make it.............very sad. I was pretty down for a week or so when I found out my RES didn't make it. Take care, Jimbo