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My daughter's new pet turtle just died

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Ludachris

Founder & Zookeeper
8,053
3,071
Nov 12, 2001
Newcastle, California
My 10 year old has been obsessed with getting a turtle for a little while now. She did all the research, got the list of what was needed, and we finally pulled the trigger. With as much as she's been stuck at home the past several months, we figured this was a good idea. She set the new tank up with great care - rinsed the small rocks and fake plants, even boiled the big rocks to clean them, got the filter set up, made sure the water temp was within range, etc. She got a Razorback baby turtle on Monday and named it Wasabi (I didn't know they ship turtles via UPS, crazy). Cute looking little thing, and my daughter was over the moon.

I've never been into turtles - I don't know anything about them. But I could see why she wanted one. This thing was fun to watch as it swam around and climbed on the rocks. It didn't eat for the first couple days, but from what I read, that was to be expected with the stress of the new environment. Everything looked to be okay. Until yesterday when she realized it hadn't move in a long while. She picked it up and it was limp. It was far more devastating than when she lost her first fish. Taking that little thing out of the tank all limp was pretty damn sad.

So now we're working with the place where we ordered it. Do we get a refund? I have no clue what to expect from this. Thing wasn't exactly cheap. And now we're going to have to give it another try. :| :banghead: :pray: I'm really hoping it works out the second time around. We'll be holding a service for little Wasabi here shortly.

Anyone else have small turtles as pets in their home?
 
Aw geez my condolences. I've always wanted a turtle myself but never got around to getting one. (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fan since I was a wee one)

Maybe it got too cold? Do you guys have a heat lamp?
 
Aw geez my condolences. I've always wanted a turtle myself but never got around to getting one. (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fan since I was a wee one)

Maybe it got too cold? Do you guys have a heat lamp?
Yeah, had a heat lamp and she checked the water temp to make sure it was within recommended range. :(

She’s doing better today but it’s tough watching your little girl go through the grief process. I know this is the first of many.
 
I grab a stray turtle once in a while just to keep them from getting hit on the road, when I was little and we would find a box turtle we would bring them home and put them outside in a box with some grass, eventually they would move along and be gone, a few years ago I found a tiny red eared slider crossing the road, this area gets them crossing there from time to time, I brought him home and had him for months, nothing fancy just a small fishbowl with a rock to climb on and a little puddle of water in the bottom, some turtle sticks from Wally World for him to eat and he was good, gave him to my mom and she had him for maybe a year and felt bad about keeping him inside the house so we together set him free in the pond out back. If I come across another baby red ear slider I can hit you up, they seem to be pretty tough especially in the wild.
 
I had a turtle for years. The most important thing is making sure they have enough space and a good tank environment. I'm sure if you did your research and prepped the tank and had it properly warmed it's not your fault. Poor thing probably had a fatal problem when you got it. Some companies replace the deceased pet if it is within a certain time frame: I'd try for a refund or at least having them pay to replace the pet. Sorry your baby had to go through that. Sending good vibes for your next pet's health.
 
I had a baby red-ear slider when I was a kid. I didn't have it for long, but I really don't remember why. I don't remember it ever dying :hmm: Always sucks seeing a child being so happy and then crushed like that. My daughter (who's 17) want's a baby elephant... :confused: wish she wanted something a bit smaller, and more attainable.
 
I had a baby red-ear slider when I was a kid. I didn't have it for long, but I really don't remember why. I don't remember it ever dying :hmm: Always sucks seeing a child being so happy and then crushed like that. My daughter (who's 17) want's a baby elephant... :confused: wish she wanted something a bit smaller, and more attainable.
A baby elephant?!?! LOL That's probably the one pet my daughter hasn't asked for yet - and I'll have to make sure she doesn't read this and add it to her wish list. Good luck with that one Tom.

All the parents know the feeling of wanting to take your child's pain away, or assume the pain for them so they don't have to endure it. She has a huge heart, this won't be the last time she gets crushed.
 
We did the same thing and got a baby turtle for our daughter during this covid period (disclaimer: I had turtles growing up too).

Mail order turtles are tricky. He was probably stressed to the point that you couldn’t do anything about it.

If you decide to get another one, a pet shop would probably have better results. If you go mail-order again, my recommendation would be to put the tank in a quiet room and leave him alone for a few days. Just feeding and that’s it.
 
We did the same thing and got a baby turtle for our daughter during this covid period (disclaimer: I had turtles growing up too).

Mail order turtles are tricky. He was probably stressed to the point that you couldn’t do anything about it.

If you decide to get another one, a pet shop would probably have better results. If you go mail-order again, my recommendation would be to put the tank in a quiet room and leave him alone for a few days. Just feeding and that’s it.
Could they be stressed to the point where they would die 6 days after the delivery though? It appeared to be swimming around, basking, sleeping, etc. It did finally eat a few days after arrival, which was a couple days before it died. She kept it in the tank the whole time, only taking it out to feed it (as advised). Maybe it was too young to handle that level of stress. She tried to get one locally, but apparently they don't sell the types of turtles she was looking for in stores around here (she wants a small one - I'd prefer that too so we don't need a massive tank).
 
Yeah, the shipping process is generally pretty terrible for them—if it was eating by the end that’s a good sign, but the damage may already have been done.

I’ve had a few turtles, but I’m no expert. My process would be to keep the turtle somewhat isolated for a week or two and put in the bare minimum decorations (just some gravel and a way to get out and bask). If you’ve had fish then you know about water quality. Turtle water is generally easier to take care of than fish water.

If all goes well then add more decor and personal interaction later.
 
Yeah, the shipping process is generally pretty terrible for them—if it was eating by the end that’s a good sign, but the damage may already have been done.

I’ve had a few turtles, but I’m no expert. My process would be to keep the turtle somewhat isolated for a week or two and put in the bare minimum decorations (just some gravel and a way to get out and bask). If you’ve had fish then you know about water quality. Turtle water is generally easier to take care of than fish water.

If all goes well then add more decor and personal interaction later.
Appreciate those tips. There were a number of decorations in the tank to start with, so I'll be sure to suggest we remove most of them for the next one. And yes, we were very careful with the water quality and filtering - she wanted to put a few large rocks in there from outside, and even boiled them to kill any bacteria before putting them in.

Here's the tank - you can't see the heat lamp hanging from above, but it's there.

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Here we have box turtles and a lot of them (along with snapping turtles), but box turtles will drowned in water.They get about 4-5" in diameter and are in our yard, crossing the road or just about anywhere. I heard that they are protected, but we still usually put a racing stripe or a number on them and then see if we ever see it again. I've done that since I was a little boy and it is probably illegal but fun when you see your "silver with red racing stripe" turtle again. Haven't ever had one inside since they tend to pee all over you when you pick them up.......
God bless Wasabi. Sounds like it was a cool little turtle. :pray: And god bless your daughter, I hate little ones being in distress. I wouldn't let my sons have a dog, since we live close to a highway and they weren't allowed inside. The reason being, I didn't want my kids to go thru what you just described Chris.
When we finally did get a dog, and the boys were teens, it broke their hearts to find her beside the road and I told them that was why I didn't want them to have one, so they didn't go thru the trauma.
I remember my first show animal, a steer named Sisco. After the 4H fair, I found out that he sold to a family and they were actually EATING HIM......my first traumatic experience but not even close to the only one (50 years ago).
BABY ELEPHANT.........that might be hard to paint stripes on ROFL
 
If that was how much water was in there, you probably want to add some more. Rule of thumb is water depth should be at least 2-3x the width of their shell. (So 3” wide = 9” water depth). And for babies, make sure there’s nothing that could trap them underwater (like a log or rock that could fall on top of them)

edit: that’s for aquatic turtles. I don’t have experience with razorbacks, but I’m assuming they are aquatic
 
If that was how much water was in there, you probably want to add some more. Rule of thumb is water depth should be at least 2-3x the width of their shell. (So 3” wide = 9” water depth). And for babies, make sure there’s nothing that could trap them underwater (like a log or rock that could fall on top of them)

edit: that’s for aquatic turtles. I don’t have experience with razorbacks, but I’m assuming they are aquatic
What you see in the photo is less than what was in there, as my daughter has taken some out. It was about 3-4" deep across most of the tank except the side when Wasabi was in there - that's what the shop recommended but we can certainly add more next time to be safe. Wasabi was swimming around quite a bit. I believe razorbacks are considered semi-aquatic based on what I read.

My first thought was that it drowned, but it wasn't stuck under anything. I don't know. I'm at a loss.
 
Here we have box turtles and a lot of them (along with snapping turtles), but box turtles will drowned in water.They get about 4-5" in diameter and are in our yard, crossing the road or just about anywhere. I heard that they are protected, but we still usually put a racing stripe or a number on them and then see if we ever see it again. I've done that since I was a little boy and it is probably illegal but fun when you see your "silver with red racing stripe" turtle again. Haven't ever had one inside since they tend to pee all over you when you pick them up.......
God bless Wasabi. Sounds like it was a cool little turtle. :pray: And god bless your daughter, I hate little ones being in distress. I wouldn't let my sons have a dog, since we live close to a highway and they weren't allowed inside. The reason being, I didn't want my kids to go thru what you just described Chris.
When we finally did get a dog, and the boys were teens, it broke their hearts to find her beside the road and I told them that was why I didn't want them to have one, so they didn't go thru the trauma.
I remember my first show animal, a steer named Sisco. After the 4H fair, I found out that he sold to a family and they were actually EATING HIM......my first traumatic experience but not even close to the only one (50 years ago).
BABY ELEPHANT.........that might be hard to paint stripes on ROFL
Racing stripe - love it! PETA might be coming after you now though, better delete your message LOL
 
As long as he has enough water to dive and be totally submerged, that should be enough. More shouldn’t hurt. In our tank we have a few stacked garden pavers to get the basking log high up enough out of the water.
 
How bout we just "ignore" it and it was 50 years ago so the little guy is probably gone by now.
A lot of them get hit in the road here. I am like Matt and sometimes stop and put them off to the side so they can be on their way plus they are hard on tires!!!!
 
My daughter has had her red ear slider for about 7 years...it was the size of a quarter when she got it originally. It's a small miracle the turtle is still alive and kicking, especially since we never followed any instructions or methods for proper turtle care...never boiled the rocks, sanitized the tanks, etc....we don't even know the sex of the turtle! We've just winged it over the years, starting from a tiny round fish bowl, to the current plexiglass tank that was given to is by a neighbor who had given up on his fish aquarium. Recently we bought some goldfish from the local pet store just for kicks and dumped them in the tank....then we discovered a few things...the gold fish eat all the crap and leftover debris from the turtle and nibble all the scum off the rock and filter....they are really good bottom feeders...and to our surprise, the turtle chases and eats the goldfish! (At first this was traumatic to my daughter who saw the turtle violently shredding and ripping apart her beloved goldfish as it consumed it)...however , I explained to her about the circle of life and the food chain! She is a little more accustomed to the occasional fish being eaten now....bit she was very sad at first....but now she understands....however, the goldfish quickly wised up and became extremely skittish and they fearfully hide in the shadows from the turtle now...so turtle has to go back to bland turtle pellets for time being...until it can catch another goldfish.....I'm surprised the shared turtle/fish setup has lasted as long as it has...about a month so far...have no idea what kind of bacteria are in the water...but they all look healthy so far....we added a heat lamp a month ago...turtle sure loves basking under that a few hours each day! ....also, a couple weeks ago I added about 10 drops of bleach to the water because it was getting a little cloudy.....probably from the heat lamp warming things up? We don't have a thermometer anymore since turtle broke it. Not sure how warm the water is....again, we are just winging it...so far so good! Hope your daughter finds the courage to try it again!
Cheers!
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Thanks for sharing Jacob - awesome job keeping that turtle alive. I didn't realize turtles would eat the goldfish, but I guess it's not a big surprise. I'll keep that in mind.

My little girl is strong, she'll want to try it again, I have no doubt. My wallet is a bit less courageous than her. LOL
 
Yeah we didn't know if the turtle in the Goldfish would co-exist together or not. It was an experiment so we just tried it out. I guess the turtles don't usually catch the live goldfish because they're pretty quick. But if one of them is caught off guard or if it starts to get sick and weak then it will become lunch for turtle.... and I think having the tank at least half full or a little more is key. It seems the water stays clean longer. And probably the bacteria in the water has something to do with the health of the turtle. Usually when I go to the pet stores they have a dozen red eared sliders swimming around in a large aquarium full of water with little floating islands on top. And a little water filter is it good idea too... but we are definitely not experts we have just been lucky so far. Kind of like my friend who goes hunting and takes his Jeep with the AC/DC blaring full blast and never gets out of it just shoots the deer right from his driver's seat. While the rest of us staked out for days in camouflage in the blinds don't get anything. Sometimes there's just not an explanation for it. Just do what works! And be persistent. Try again with a cheaper turtle and build from that experience. Kind of like those of us who started with a Honda and then we moved up to the DSM!
 
I have never used any type of heat source, I dont know that that's a good idea, turtles are cold blooded and in nature they wouldn't have heat like that, they live in swampy areas generally.
 
That’s a really nice tank. The red ear slider we had really liked eating anacharis plants , they kept the water cleaner for longer to. Started giving it more anacharis as I could find it at the local pet stores and tiny feeder fish and the turtles disposition totally changed became a lot more friendly and active. Just don’t feed the turtle with your fingers or they start to associate fingers with food and will bite LOL. Also seemed to like tiny pancakes a lot.
 
I think your missing the UV-B bulb, reptiles need it survive. The UVB light helps your turtle get his vitamin D3 which also absorbs calcium. You can also expose your turtle to a UVA light as this will help him regulate his behaviors such as feeding, daily movement, and mating.
They become more active and eat from my experience but be careful some bulb will cause them to have vision problems. ( too much UVB)

Having the right temp and wave spectrum to is important.
 
I think your missing the UV-B bulb, reptiles need it survive. The UVB light helps your turtle get his vitamin D3 which also absorbs calcium. You can also expose your turtle to a UVA light as this will help him regulate his behaviors such as feeding, daily movement, and mating.
They become more active and eat from my experience but be careful some bulb will cause them to have vision problems. ( too much UVB)

Having the right temp and wave spectrum to is important.
Actually, I misspoke, it's the UVB bulb we have hanging above the tank, not a heat lamp - though that bulb does give off some heat.
 
I've had a turtle for literally 30 years now, since I was ten. THIRTY. I've had girlfriends who were younger than my turtle.

I've also had some pretty elaborate aquarium setups. I don't know why your turtle died, sometimes purchased animals just die- especially exotic ones. However, I can give you a little information about filtration.

First off, the main job of any freshwater aquarium filter, regardless of the animal type, is the nitrogen cycle. That is converting ammonia to nitrites and finally to nitrates (which you remove by changing the water). This is done biologically. You're basically cultivating a biological filter. This takes 4-8 weeks. Turtles produce A LOT of ammonia. Urine, shit and uneaten food- it all becomes ammonia. I'm not sure what the rate for a turtle is but fish create about their own weight in ammonia daily. A turtle probably creates less. To keep ammonia from building up to toxic levels you have to cycle the filter in advance. You do this by adding ammonia incrementally until nitrites appear, then you keep adding ammonia until nitrates appear, and finally, eventually ammonia and nitrites will be at zero and you'll only have nitrates. The filter will be fully cycled. Can a turtle live in water with a little ammonia? Yeah. Much more resistant to it than a lot of fish. But baby reptiles are much less hardy than their adult counterparts. It doesn't take much more than any one wrong thing for them to die.

If you decide to try again recommend this test kit:
https://www.amazon.com/API-FRESHWATER-800-Test-Freshwater-Aquarium/dp/B000255NCI

Test strips are junk. If you get that kit make sure to follow the instructions for nitrate very carefully, it's pretty specific.

Another thing to remember is that aquarium filters are woefully overrated. You need to know the GPH and you need one that can cycle all the water in the aquarium 5-10 times per hour. When it comes to filtration, bigger is always better unless it's a type of fish that doesn't like a lot of current, then you simply need the minimum. When it comes to filtration types I advocate all biological with a little mechanical filtration for water clarity (though your mechanical filtration will grow the beneficial bacteria as well). I do not believe in carbon filtration. First of all, lets say you do use carbon- it will compete with the biological filtration for their food source. Secondly, it doesn't last long. Think about your Brita filter but worse. For it to really work you have to constantly replace it which will cost money. If you have space in your filter for carbon, put some other media in. Some filter floss or sponge or other biomedia- surface area is the name of the game. Then, to mitigate the nitrates you should do up to an 80% water change weekly, or whatever is required to keep nitrates under 5-10ppm. Unfortunately there's is no other great way to deal with nitrates in freshwater. I've seen people create elaborate algae filters and filters with a hundred feet of tubing (the bacteria that eats nitrates is anaerobic, at the end of long tubing the water will be oxygen free). But none of it is very practical. But nitrates are not particularly toxic to turtles and are much less toxic to fish than nitrites and ammonia.

It's all somewhat complicated for a kid. You're basically going to be doing most of the work depending on her age and interest level, which can change instantly- through my teen years my turtle relied a lot on my mom to take care of him.

As far as goldfish, remember that any animal is going to add to the bioload of the aquarium. At some point there is too much animal and not enough water. And goldfish do have quite a large bioload. When I was a kid I put three of them in with the turtle. He actually left them alone and they got pretty big. But one day he killed all three for some reason and was really messy. I've had a couple other fish with him over the years, bluegill, sunfish, etc. The last sunfish got pretty big, almost as long as the turtle, and I am not sure if it died naturally or the turtle killed it, but my turtle was just swimming around with the fish in his mouth until I took it away.

Anyway, good luck with it.
 
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