Hey, everyone. Found this forum because we need HELP. 16 years ago we adopted an already-10-year-old yellow-belly slider that had been brought for Pet Day at my kids' pre-school, for the purpose of being given away.. (They had fallen in love with her by the time I arrived to pick 'em up.) She's a survivor, having lived that long in a small dishpan. Knowing nothing about turtles, I went online, bought books, and of course immediately found out that she needed to be living in a sizeable filtered tank with an "island" in it, a light over it, etc. So we bit the bullet and got "Ms. Turtle" all set up in a 40-gallon breeder aquarium with all that she needed.

We all love Ms. Turtle and are, I think, good owners, seeing her through several health crises early on, keeping her tank clean, bringing her feeder fish now and then.. The kids have grown up helping with her care and she does actually interact with us a bit. Problem is, MS. TURTLE HAS SERIOUSLY OUTGROWN HER TANK at this point. (She's clearly not happy there now, we can't keep it clean, etc.).. And the kids are off to college.. I've just had back surgery and my husband has horrible knees.. *sigh* The truth is, I think we all know that we are kind of up against a wall regarding Ms. Turtle. Our house really can't accommodate a huge tank, we (the parents) are having trouble taking good care of her by ourselves, and we all really need a solution.. a new, good home for Ms. Turtle.

But we have NO IDEA what to do.. We DON'T just want to put her in the local lake after all this time, having been told that she is unlikely to make it that way.

Can anyone help us with this? Frankly we need advice ASAP. Her water just won't stay clean and it's gotten so she's restless so much of the time...

We have a 30 year old one who lives in a pond sunk into the greenhouse with lighting and heating in the winter,where about do you live?

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Thanks for the photo--wow, what a great setup.. and a beautiful turtle! Unfortunately with 2 kids in college we can't afford something like this.

We live in Wilmington, NC, USA.. Temp varies between 100 F on hot summer days to 30s (F) in the winter.

What a shame I was going to offer her a home but a bit far for me to comeours used to be in a big tank but the smell was awful once we put her out in a planted pond no smell,hope you manage to find a solution

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Oh, too bad! I so wish she could live there, and with you.. and your turtle! Yeah, the smell does get pretty bad at this point. We changed all the water out 3 days ago and this morning it's .. not good. Do you have any suggestions as to short-term fixes for the smell issue, by any chance?

Sorry thats why ours had to go outside the smell made me vomit after a few days.Have you not got room outside to put a small pond if it was deep she would hibernate in the winter

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don`t feed her in the tank , i kept turtles and i`ve always pulled them out their tanks and fed them in a washing up bowl they are messy eaters which is the reason why i never fed mine in their tanks , keeps the water lovely and clean , disease free and no smells!

Why would you even think about putting her in the lake, go on this site and advertise you should have some look find her a home www.terapin-info.co.uk

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staffy cross - cassie

Terrapins - 3 stripped mud, common musk, map breeding group







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I was going to suggest that or take her myself but she lives in the USA

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