Baby red ear sliders

by Shriya
(Singapore)

I have 2 baby red ear slider turtles. They are about 7 months old. Sometimes when it's a bit cold in the night I take them out of the water and put them in folds of cloth in my laundry bag. They instantly go to sleep buried in a towel or something there. In the mornings I find them asleep in the exact same position. Are they hibernating?

I then wake them up gently and put them on their basking spot in the tank, they take some time to open their eyes and get accustomed to their surroundings and eventually slide into the water. But then I notice that they don't eat well. And they seem a bit groggy all day. Should I not do this? Or should I let them sleep for longer that way?

Brankica: Hello, Shriya,
you should definitely not be doing that.

You should have a heater in the tank that will keep the water warm for them and an UV lamp to keep the air in the tank warm.

For a turtle to hibernate, it needs to be prepared, with special diet and other requirements. Pet turtles (red ear sliders) hardly ever hibernate in captivity because they are warm enough in their tanks.

All that moving around is what makes them eat less. Turtles are not pets that like to be handled much.

Now, a little note. If you leave them in the tank and you don't have a heater (and it is very cold) they will slow down because the start of the winter (in this case cold) is the sign to start hibernating.

To learn more you can read about turtle tanks or just hop over to the pet turtles page, where you can find links to all things about turtles.

Hope this will help you and if you have any additional questions feel free to write to me again.

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