Turtles are basically freshwater and/or saltwater dwellers with the hard cartilaginous shell which protects these creatures from there natural predators and yet are reptiles. As I grew old, I developed interest in these creatures and pet keeping practices. Today, I am a proud owner of five Red Ear Slider freshwater turtles. Here’s the picture of these turtles when I first brought them.
They were not more than the size of a coin when I initially brought them from the local pets store. At this stage, they are very fragile and delicate and required great amount of care and nutrition. During their juvenile stage, they basically survive on non vegetarian food and later, as the age progresses, they tend to turn more vegetarian in their diet.
Few more shots of these cute babies. I also had three golden apple snails in their tank to limit the wastage inside the enclosure and help in increasing the water quality. The pink colored pebbles are my sister’s choice (of course, I was going with the color green). 🤓 Turtles have a lot of personality and we enjoy every bit of this pet keeping. A bit of nature in my home.
It’s been more than two years now since we brought them to our home. It’s an amazing feeling seeing these turtles grow right in front of my eyes. Its been my routine to feed the turtles first thing in the mornings since two years. They do shed there skin and shell scales annually.
Today they have grown into this monstrous size. 😁 We feed them their staple turtle feed once a day as these are still juvenile. Occasionally, I feed them the dried blood worms and shrimps as treats.
Few single still shots of these beauties.
Clifford basking in the mossy coral rock.
So yes, these boys do have their names. Here we go, the first turtle in the above picture is Turbo, male and very fast and restless. The next one is Megatron, female. Followed by Optimus Prime – male, Clifford – female and Beans – female. They are still a bit skittish but a lot better than before. Now I handle them for comfortably.
Aren’t these so cute??☺️ They enjoy the new water and I clean the enclosure weekly. It’s extremely important to keep the water clean and hygienic as dirty water causes infections to turtles. I make sure that I am not putting the fresh water from the tap into their enclosure. Freshwater from the tap risks in containing chlorine in them as a safety measure which are extremely harmful to aquatic animals.
Clifford the destructa! She gets very agitated when I change and clean the enclosure. She circles the whole space and femilierize herself first. Here’s she is destroying my filter equipment. More pics to come soon.
rohit0506 