Why slider?
It basks on a log and slides off into the water the moment anything comes near.
Snakes, shells and frogs · A lot of time and space
Yellow-bellied slider
Turtle · from the south-eastern United States
A dark olive turtle with yellow stripes on its head and neck, a yellow underside and webbed feet.
- Size
- Up to 30cm long
- Lives for
- 30 to 40 years
- Suits
- Keepers with space for a very large tank or pond
Paddles after you, neck stretched out. Move your pointer and see.
Good to know
Six things about the terrapin
From a coin to a dinner plate
Hatchlings are the size of a large coin. Adults are the size of a dinner plate.
It needs to dry off
It must climb out to bask under heat and ultraviolet light every day, or its shell goes soft.
A problem in the wild
So many unwanted terrapins were dumped in ponds that selling some kinds is now banned in Britain.
Meat first, greens later
Young ones eat mostly insects and fish. Adults eat more water plants.
Forty years
It can live for forty years.
The real thing
Photos of the terrapin
,_Jard%C3%ADn_Bot%C3%A1nico,_M%C3%BAnich,_Alemania_2012-04-21,_DD_09.JPG){kind=link}
Photos are from Wikimedia Commons, used under the free licences shown. They have been resized, and cropped where they appear in link previews.
Looking after one
An adult needs a tank of several hundred litres or a heated indoor pond, a powerful filter, a dry basking platform and both heat and ultraviolet lamps.
Before you get one
Terrapins are appealing as babies and very demanding as adults. Many rescue centres have them. Think of the adult, not the hatchling.
Keep going