New Turtles

[joyditchburn]

I have been given 2 lovely turtles with a tank and light and thermometer. Any advice on keeping them happy such as water temp, how long to leave the lamp on, what to feed them and can we handle them or take them out of the tank. Any advice very welcome.

[sophs87]

Would help to know what breed, size ect. if you dont know post some pictures x

[annsimpson1]

whatever turtles they are you will need the best filter that you can afford preferably an external one as turtles are very messy, again depending on the breed they can also grow extremely big and the bigger breeds will require a pond in a very few years, you need to post photo's or describe them and their size as they can need different care from each other, most of the more commonones need a dry basking area with a heat source and all will need a source of uv light. None of them like being handled but will feed from your hand and all hate being far away from water hence the handling bit.

[Graham]

The first thing you need to do is to ID the species (please note people it's species, not breed!), then read an appropriate caresheet which will tell you all the basics.

You can find caresheets covering most of the more common species here The Terrapin Tank - www.TerrapinTank.co.uk -

[annsimpson1]

sorry graham

[angela__k__84]

As Graham has said it is important that you ID the species as certain turtles need different care.
As a general rule of thumb turtles require 12-14 hours of Uv and heat from their lamps (but again that differs per species)
It is best to get them feeding on a good quality pellet diet, reptomin etc with some greens - duck weed or water cress (do not feed spinach as it is a calcium binder) but AGAIN this can change with the species. So basically all my information is very speculative until we know what you have. Most likely it will be sliders, or cooters but if you post a pic they can be easily IDed.
I do agree with Ann though - regardless of the species they need the best possible filter. Turtles are messy blighters and it is recommended you have a filter that can handle more than your tank, So if you have a 100 litre tank you want a filter that can cope with say 300 litres.
Get some pics up and the turts will be IDed and we can give much better advice