Just got a male red eared slider turtle for 1 day and he died. My teenage son has been wanting one for 6 months. So we researched a TON and asked a ton of questions to turtle owners!!! Before purchasing a turtle...we got the tank setup including light, filter, heater, treated the water, put in a basking rock, made sure the water was the right height and temperature, and made sure we had a big enough tank. We wanted to make sure everything was good before introducing a turtle to his new environment. We went with rescuing a turtle from our local animal shelter (teenager, but don't know how old...I know he wasn't a baby and he wasn't an adult). We live 5 minutes from the shelter and got him home and in the tank right away. We noticed he wasn't active right away and we thought he was just adjusting or scared. It made me nervous how inactive he was and so I was checking on him every hour. He spent most of his time on the basking rock and wouldn't eat. He was fanning a lot, hissing a lot with his neck out, had peeling skin on his neck, mucus bubbles that would come from his mouth off and on, and when we put him in the water briefly (I didn't want him to get to hot) he couldn't get back up on his rock. So we got a ramp for him and he would just laid on the rock. I made such to turn the light off that night so he wouldn't get too hot. I didn't know I could become so attached to him in 1 day. My son was at a soccer game when he passed and it was the hardest thing to tell him when he got home. I've been bawling because I'm so upset and my son is beyond sad.
WHAT DID WE DO WRONG??? Of course we want to get another turtle, but I'm SOOO nervous now. I don't want the same thing to happen. Should we not have gone with a rescue turtle? If not a rescue turtle...where is the best place to purchase a new turtle? Do you think he could have been sick before we got him? Could we have stressed him out to much? Was he overheated being on the rock to long? Should we not have gone with a red eared slider? What should we look for when purchasing our next turtle? So many questions. I'm guessing everything we did and trying to find out what we did wrong.
Beyond sad!
We loved him...much love to Turbo the Turtle