Terryo - I would love to see some pics of the turt, not a species you see over here very often!

She is an Eastern Painted Turtle. Here she is as a hatchling, and getting bigger. She is full grown now at almost two years.

__________________

Very nice, where did you get her?

Are you sure about her being fully grown? My oldest Southern Painted is 15 this year and still growing, albeit very slowly now, and I'd be very surprised if any species of turt reached full adult size in just two years.

Easterns grow bigger than Southerns and a female could reach 8" SCL, how big is yours now?

Graham - do you keep all of your painteds together? What do you keep the red belly in if the painteds are in the pond?

__________________

My Reptiles: 2.1 Rankins Dragons2.4 Leopard Geckos0.0.2 Ackies1.1 Royal Pythons3.2 Kenyan Sand Boas1.0 Western Hognose

Other Animals 1.0 Cockatiel

For Sale: Baby Leopard geckos - incubated for female (normals and Hypos1.1 Adult Saharan Sand Boas

As I said when you asked earlier, the Painteds are all kept together and the Red Belly is kept with them, they all have the same habitat requirements so are fine together.

Actually I have one of the male Painteds separated at the moment, he's a recent arrival and was in quarantine until recently, he's extremely randy though and I don't want to let him loose on my females just yet, I want to give my other male a chance first!

When they go outdoors in May he'll go with them though, and then they'll all stay together.

Wow..I didn't know that. I thought she was full grown now at 2 years. When do they stop growing? I know she is a female, and she is about 4 1/2 inches. I got her on a Kingsnake ad. She was sooooo little. She won't get as big as a RES, will she? I thought they were smaller. Well, that's why I am here...to learn.

__________________

My Mississippi Map has a five ffot tank with heater, filter, uv light and a basking light. Has a turtle bridge to hide in and bask on. Sorry, dont have a picture of the set up - but she prefers the space rather than clutter...I removed all the rocks and plants.

Be aware that water has to be de-clorinated and tank cleaned regularly, they can be messy!!!

Have to say, she is just lovely

i had 2 yelowbellies in a 3ft tank and they were messy and smelly, complete change every week.they are now in a 8ft pond outside with a large res that zoe6660 rescued.the pond settled within a month as i had a load of mature pondweed off freecycle.no pump or filter as the duckweed etc keeps the alage away as the sunlight doesnt go through it,had no probs last summer.i checked the pond yesterday and pulled some weed up to encourage new growth and one of the yellowbellies swam along.its amazing the amount of insect life as well waterfleas etc.

__________________

They never really stop growing, the growth rate just slows as they age until it's barely noticeable, my oldest has put on no more than 1/2" in the past 5 years.

As I said Eastern females can grow to 8", so nearly twice the size of yours eventually, if it's definitely a female then it almost certainly isn't fully grown at just 4.5", that would be quite small for a male even.

No she won't get as big as a RES, they can grow to 12".