Baby Slider Turtle

[CritterBazaar]

I got a surprise in our swimming pool today. A baby turtle about the size of a quarter. We have never had adult turtles around our property but a few ponds down the road do have them as I have rescued several from the road each spring. Can someone tell me how far a baby can travel to find water? Is this little guy very old. I have brought him in the house and have him in a tank, with an area to swim that he has been going in and out of. Have turtle food from previous rescues that have been released, but never had to deal with one so small. Want to make sure he gets a fighting chance with all the water fowl in the area, including my own before releasing him. Thanks for any advice you can provide.

 

[Stina]

His best chance would really be taking it to one of those ponds and releasing it. They can travel a pretty long distance...but a baby very far off from water probably got confused and went the wrong way.....or got picked up by something and dropped. www.turtletimes.com is a very very useful site for turtle info....wonderful forum with really really great (and knowledgeable!) people!

 

[MoodyChicken]

Sometimes hawks grab small turtles, realize they can't eat them, and drop them. A friend of mine watched a hawk dump a turtle in her pasture. She rescued it and found a new home for it. She was originally going to keep it, but released it because it wasn't doing well in captivity. So she found him a pond.

 

[Bec]

Baby turtles have a natural instinct to hide amongst the plants and reeds along the banks of ponds. If you take him to one of those ponds and release him right into a big clump of branches and algae, he will dive right in and keep hidden!

He probably thought he found himself a great new pond when he landed in your pool!! lol

 

[CritterBazaar]

Thanks all. I actually told my husband a hawk probably dropped it. He claimed it was the sign - posted by the other animals. "Open house - free food". We tend to get the strange show up here including a horse that brock into our pasture. Again thank you, I will take him to the big pond down the road. It has a lot of bushes and plants so he should be able to hide form natural predators and the local kids.

 

[Bec]

Good for you for rescuing him!!! He will thank you forever!

 

[Stina]

Good for you for releasing him!!! FAR too many people think they are doing a good thing by keeping wild animals they find......thank you for doing the right thing!