How to clean terrapins

Aquatic Turtles are a life long commitment.
Clean with water and a tooth brush only.
Their scutes.shell pieces on top are thier skin...so be gentle.
Remember 10 gallons for every inch of turtle. Leave the heater 80 degrees always.
And my pictures don't lie. All ages and all sizes get along as long as their is allot for swim room and plenty to eat! They can become cannibalistic if you have 2 or more turtles and a small environment. They will kill off the smallest and then fight for the tank for themselves.
But if you have plenty of room and fish they will get along fine. My pictures prove that.
Sliders, westerns, cooters , midland, painted, map, yellow bellied all are basically the same and require the same basic care.
They NEED calcium and protein they get it from the fish meat and the fish bones. Drop 20 or 30 or so feeder guppies or small goldfish (or minnows they maybe a bit fast for babies) at first just drop in the tank and watch them disappear in a few days! The more they eat the healthier the turtle.

**** If these are hatchlings a 1” and a tad over they may need to have their live food half dead by leaving the fish out of water for a few minutes (10minutes) and put in the tank. That way the baby can get the meat he needs and the fish can’t out run the baby turtle.
Plus some leafy green and vitamin A fruits cut up a few times a week. Swollen cloudy eyes comes from lack of Vitamin A. Which we all need for good eyes.
Plus I also feed dried cubed blood worms or tubiflex worms or pellets at least 5 times a week for my five..
They can have garden worms which I collect after a good rain and dump them un the pond, also meal worms, snails, crickets, flies, crayfish small frogs, slugs, tadpoles ,dragon flies and anything that moves, but only as a treat.
They need leafy greens Romaine, Butter lettuce. (Iceberg and cabbage are bad for them, any other leafy greens will do) for vitamin A that they need at least 4 to 5 times a week.
They love grapes and strawberries and squash , apples.
These turtles in captivity do not hibernate their eating may slow down some but they will not hibernate. They cannot hear or see well so they feel you coming by the vibrations each foot step take. And in the winter their appetites slow down some.

TOSS in a bird cuttle bone in the water for calcium that will promote better shell growth, it will dissolve real slow and if they eat it that’s fine!!

Did you know that they need to bask under a reptile light UVA/UVB for up to 8 hrs a day for the vitamin D that they need to grow.
So they need a turtle basking dock.
Gravel larger than they can swallow, allot larger.
Their water needs to be clean otherwise they get sick easily from dirty water cause they poop allot.
You need a GREAT filter system!

They will bite very very hard. Under 4" they carry a disease called 'salmonella'. So you must wash after every handling ANY size turtle..
Size for basic aquatic turtle is approx Body length: 5-8" is average for males, up to 12 inches max for females, but average is about 9 to 10“ in captivity. Life span: 15-25+ years plus. Males have the longer front nails and are used in mating. And are considered mature at about 5 yrs old. You can’t start sexing till about 3” across. Real mating happens in May through June and hatchlings within 90 days. Eggs are laid in soil. Do not cut the males nails!!
They sleep at the bottom of rivers, streams. lakes or ponds or your tank to avoid predators like coyotes, foxes, owls, hawks, possums, raccoons and even some wide mouth bass and us humans.

***Some sicknesses they get easily.
Like shell its actual holes rotting through the shell.
Respiratory sickness, lopsided swimming, coughing, vomiting, blowing bubbles from their nose. .
Fungus white cotton patches on their skin, treat by adding a 1/4 of a cup of aquarium salt per 5 gallons to irritate and hopefully kill fungus. The addition of sulfa drugs such as those sold at pet stores under the name "Dr. Turtle" also should help kill fungus. Here is one source that sells Dr. Turtle. They also now sell a Sulfa dip by Zoo Med to treat bacteria and/or fungus.