Turtle help!

Mike and I were outside taking the garbage out and found a very small turtle that only has three legs. We have no idea where he came from, he's pretty small and although there is a river behind our building it's literally a straight drop about 50 feet to it. We don't think that he could climb up that... since it's also the first of the month, it's far more likely that someone moved out and just left him outside thinking that he would go to the river.

We waited a good hour before going out to see if he was still there, and of course, he was. He seems pretty friendly, he didn't mind being held and was sticking his legs and head out the entire time, not hiding at all. We brought him inside and put him in our fish tank (he has something to climb up onto), I called my mom to see if they still have a tank that we can have to get him a better living arrangement but she has to get back to me in a few hours.

What do we need to have for this turtle now and what can wait a few days until I get paid? What do they eat? We honestly have no clue, but figured it was better to bring him inside than to have him die outside by a cat/dog/coon/fox or get too cold.

I am far from a turtle expert, but I did have some when I was younger.
You are certain this is an aquatic turtle?
If he is aquatic, I suggest other, tempory arrangement as he may eat your fish.

Which also leads to your other question, most aquatic turtles are omnivorous, with quite a few enjoying the more carnivorous side of that.

Identify his species and you can try to find concise care sheets from a herptology club or similar.

Can you post pics? If he's a Box Turtle or a released pet tortoise, he could drown (although if there's a place to easily climb out he probably won't). If it is an aquatic turtle, it'll eat your fish. Care varies so much among species that I'm reluctant to make care recommendations without a positive species ID.

Yes, I am sure that he's aquatic (or at least semi aquatic) because he has webbed feet. My cousin used to have turtles and I remember him telling me how to tell the difference between the two kinds he had.

I'm going to try to figure out a different situation for him, I think we have a large rubbermaid container that I could use for him for a little while, at least until we can get the proper things together. Would that be ok? At least temporarily?

I believe he's a painted turtle. I'll try to get pics as soon as I can.

A rubbermaid container should be fine as temporary housing.

Plastic containers can be excellent long-term habitats as well. . .probably not a Rubbermaid; they're a bit too flimsy for long-term use, but I've seen some beautiful stock tank setups.

He probably is wild. Baby turtles have a terribly high mortality rate (they're like the Ritz crackers of the wild--everything eats them), so he probably narrowly missed being eaten. Normally a wild turtle should be released. . .but I think that keeping an injured baby of a common species would be fine . You might want to check the wildlife laws, though. I doubt they'd mind but it's always best to check.

I believe that it's illegal here to have natural wildlife as pets, but I could have sworn that I've seen painted and slider turtles at one of the aquarium stores here being sold as pets. I'll give them a call and see what they say.

I've got him in a small cd/dvd storage tote right now, I know it's too small for him longterm but it'll have to do for a few days.

I read up a bit on them, the few sites I checked out said that I can give him bugs, cooked lean ground beef and some veggies/fruit or turtle pellets for food. We're making pasta tonight with lean ground beef so I'll offer him some of that before we make the sauce. We put a bit of lettuce in there and I caught a big outside, lol. I put the bug in the water so it wouldn't get out into our apartment... we'll see if he eats that.

On the plus side, on Monday we were going to go and get some special bulbs for growing plants inside. One of the sites I was on said that they were the same type that you can use for turtles. Since his enclosure is going to be right under the plants, it should work out well - we also have a friend that has a few lizards, she said that we can have one of her old basking lights.

If any of this is wrong or hazardous to him, just let me know and I won't do it. I'm going to research the plastic container enclosures more - I think we could make him something that he would like a lot more than something we could buy.

Yep, that sounds about right. A UVB light for vitamin D production (or a supplemented food, or take him outside in the sun for 30 minutes at least once a week), a heat lamp and a basking area out of the water, clean water, good food. Sounds like you have it all covered. Natural foods, like bugs, veggies (not a lot of fruit, dark leafy greens are best), and lean meat, are better than pellets.

Originally Posted by Willowy

Yep, that sounds about right. A UVB light for vitamin D production (or a supplemented food, or take him outside in the sun for 30 minutes at least once a week), a heat lamp and a basking area out of the water, clean water, good food. Sounds like you have it all covered. Natural foods, like bugs, veggies (not a lot of fruit, dark leafy greens are best), and lean meat, are better than pellets.

Click to expand...

Crickets, earthworms and feeder fish should all be readily eaten as well.

Excuse my bad drawing on the first picture... it's what our plans are with the shelve. We're planning on getting a tank/container that will cover the entire first shelf - I have to measure it to see if it's a good enough size though.

The things on the shelves are plants, lol. The things that look like squiggles are the lamps that we have to put the UV bulbs in for the plants, they're like those snake lamps that you can maneuver to go where ever you want them. We were only going to have the two, but we have a third lamp and can get the third bulb so he has enough UV light. The other lamp would be his heat lamp, I can put it on either side really.



Does that look like a good set up? Obviously with a container bigger than the one he's in now?

And here's some pictures of him. I swear he's been handled or been around people before because he's not running into the water or squirming to get away from me if I pick him up. Of course, he could just be completely scared.







His missing leg





This was after I put him back in... the water got a bit murky because I was messing around with the rocks... he uses the one rock as a ramp to get up onto the ledge rock.

Well I didn't think that we were going to keep him, so I found him a home today with a lady that I work with. When I got home from work and told Mike, he got all sad and said that he wants to keep him. He says that he's going to clean his enclosure, feed him and take care of him, so I guess we're keeping him. I'll let the lady at work know tomorrow. They have a small indoor pond (with no fish, lol) that they were going to keep him in if they took him. It wasn't so much of a "Sweet, we're looking for a turtle!" and much of "A pet in need, we can give him a good home." so I think it'll be fine with her.

Tomorrow we're off to shop for the few things that we need now for him, the rest is going to have to wait until next pay day - mostly the UV lights because they're around $30/2pk and that's what we had budgeted for this week, now that money is going to other turtle related supplies. Mike knows that he has to take him outside for at least 1/2 hour at least once a week until we get those lights and he's fine with that. He's really looking forward to making him a nice enclosure too!

A friend of ours has a bunch of the acrylic that's graded for aquarium use, I don't know what he was using it for but he said that we can have the left overs if we want. Lucky for us, in this month's issue of MAKE they tell you how to make an aquarium, so it looks like we'll be able to make him the perfect enclosure build specifically for him!

This is similar to what I kept my sliders in, except mine had a wood framed acrylic front and no casters.

First picture: Turtle Table

Update on Turt Russel (that's what we named him, lol). He's still alive!

I don't remember if I posted before or not, but he is eating out of my hand if I have something yummy in there. He really likes ground beef, tuna and carrots. We picked turtle pellets last week but he isn't too fond of them.

My friend let me know that Goodwill had two 20 gallon tanks on Thursday, today I was able to go there and they were still there *happy dance*. I picked up the better looking one for $5 and then went to Petsmart and got him a UV lamp. We still need to get him a proper basking lamp, but for now the snake light seems to be doing the job well. I could not have asked for a better tank height - it's perfect, it fits right under between the shelves so I can use the one shelf to rest the UV light on. We also picked up some gravel that the girl at Petsmart recommended for turtles, he seems to like that a lot more than the dirt stuff we had in there.

He really seems to be liking his new digs. We still need to get a filter, I've been vacuuming it and doing partial water changes every few days to keep it clean. He's also pretty good about leaving his food on his big rock and not dragging it into the water so that helps cut down on the waste in there.

We're still planning on building him a better tank, but for now this is a big improvement for him. Once we build the new tank we'll get a hood for this one and move the fish into it.

Leiki finally realized we have a turtle, lol, she was interested and keeps jumping up on the stand where he is now, but she can't get into it because of the height of the thank so everyone is safe.

How has Turt been doing?

I was going to say, if he was from outside he should be seen by a vet to check for internal parasites, which you dont want him to have as some can get people sick.

CatBehaviors - Sorry, I didn't see your post sooner! He's doing great. He didn't seem to like the 20 gallon tank and we had lost all of our fish except one (old age I think), so I switched him to the smaller tank and he seems a lot happier - swimming around more, eating more, just seems all around happier. I don't know how big it is, I can't remember... it's at least 10 gallons, if not 15. I still have the 20 gallon in storage for when he outgrows this one. I haven't had the time/money to make him the tank I want to since I had to move and other things that have gone on, but once I get all settled in here and unpacked I'm going to start on it. 

JessicaRomano - I can't afford to take him to a vet right now, no one handles him at all and his tank is enclosed so there isn't much risk for parasites to spread. Whenever I do have to handle him (when I clean his tank), I always wash my hands well right after and disinfect the area well with bleach. I'm not even sure that I can take him to a vet, I don't know if there is one around here that deals with reptiles and even if they do, he is illegal as he's a native species. 

I think exotic vets just need a fecal sample and they can check for parasites without the turtle actually going in, but it does cost money. Just saying if he has parasites it can affect his health negatively if they get bad enough.

Vets have a client-doctor privilege and won't turn you in for having an illegal pet. Also, you can give Panacur to turtles. . .I'm sure you can find the dose online somewhere. Probably a good idea to give him some now and then.

I do have panacur here, I use it on my dogs. I did not know that about vets in regards to illegal animals... thanks for letting me know that. 

I'll try to find an exotic vet and see how much it would be for them to check a sample. He is a native species, and was probably wild at some point, but where we found him and the timing fit with someone dumping him when they moved.