Sliders can also have different personalities and character. If you have 2 or more sliders, why not observe some of their activities and behaviours, then made a comparison. They will definitely be different in one way or the other, cool eh?
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Why 'sliders'? Because they slide into water once they are frightened or sense danger.
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Why do turtles shed their scutes?
Sometimes, you may find pieces of translucent shell floating around the aquarium. What has happened? Well, don't worry. Turtles are like snake, they shed their scutes instead of skin (for snakes) when growing. This shedding is less noticeable when they are young but it gets more obvious when they get older. They shed only once in a while. You can collect the scutes and try to piece them into a carapace like jigsaw puzzle (though I never did succeed cos i mixed them all up)!
Beware that continuous shedding of scutes may mean that your turtle is sick. May be fungus or parasite infection.
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What are the red-eared sliders doing? It keeps trembling its front legs at it's fellow turtle companion.
It is doing the mating dance! Check out mating & breeding.
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The slider made a gasping sound when it drew its head into it's shell?
It made that sound because it is forcing the air out of it's lungs to allow space for its head to withdrew into the shell, especially when it is shocked and drew it's head in suddenly. Rapid gasping when not drawing head in rapidly may mean that it has a flu, check out health.
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What colour does my turtle like?
Most turtles will get use to the colour of it's surrounding over time although they may show apprehension to certain colours at first. Mine got used to red already, in fact to all the colours around it ^_^
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Sorry about the previous info about the eyesight, I just realised they actually have very acute eyesight. Well, what make me think initially that they have poor eyesight is probably because they sometimes ignore what is around them... They are also very alert! Observe the way they look at you.
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Their front feet are very useful for swimming, climbing as well as eating! They use the claws to tear the food into smaller pieces for swallowing, despite having no teeth.
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They yawn! Just like human, sometimes you may see them open their mouth wide for a big yawn...
And if you notice close enough, they have a short tongue. Hmm... that might explain why they are so choosy on food. You can see the tongue if you feed them with their front facing you.
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They can actually be trained in one aspect, that is... to eat from your hand! I think that is really cool, but may not work with all sliders. Try holding a piece of food the slider about 1 inches away from it's nose and try to attract it's attention so that it can see the food. Steady your hand and try the slider's accuracy ,that is if it is not frightened by your hand. This 'shyness' can gradually be overcome if the turtle knows this means good food. If it aimed correctly, well you have succeeded! If not, well too bad you might want to try again. I hope it's bite won't hurt.
Sometimes you can also try waving the food to test its accuracy or attract it to go after the food so that they can exercise.
Another thing is, the res can only swallow under water. Taking food from your hand doesn't mean that they will eat it straight, they will just hold the food in their mouth until they puts their head under water. So do not feed them on dry places. After it has learned how to eat from your hand, it will often beg you for food but don't overfeed them or they will grow too fat! Refer to feeding.
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There's actually something call Colour morphs which breeds red-eared sliders of different 'type'. The most popular ones are the albino red-eared sliders with colour of lemon yellow or pale yellow and hasn't much pattern on their shells. Other are known as pastel red-eared sliders due to incubation at inadequate temperatures or the expression of recessive genes resulted in asymmetry of shell pattern and/or scutes, uneven eyes size. I think it may be a form of mutation.
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Sliders shut their eyelids from bottom up instead of down!
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They always blink at the instance when their eyes are out of water, I am not sure why.
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Their shell are attached to their rib-bones, and that makes their shell part of their bone structure. Some people have the misconception from cartoons probably that the shell is 'detached' from their body. I suggestion you go and take a better look at real turtles and tortoises.
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Consider the disadvantage if you ever cut the claws of your res, they might not be able to tear up big pieces of food effectively for swallowing! Refer to feeding. But it may not be an impossible thing. Refer to http://www.turtlecare.net/beak.htm
I have tried claws trimming but my res keeps pulling back its leg so i am afraid of hurting it, in the end i didn't manage to trim it. After that it seems to be afraid of me holding it. Bad.
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Sometimes if you see the skin of your res turns pink. Don't fret. It may be due to bad blood circulation at that time. Let it out for a walk or exercise and the skin will soon turn back green. If the pink colour persists it may be due to skin infection and it could be because of dirty water or tank. Sagging skin is usually due to aging. You might notice that their skin start to sag at 8 or 9 yrs old.
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Can I put my turtles in the pool?
This is not very advisable. The chlorine content is high and the pool is deep, turtle cannot climb out of it so may drown. In case you don't know that turtles breathe air into their lungs, they are not like fish.

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