>>General Info

Overview-

Red-eared sliders are reptiles. All reptiles are cold-blooded and have scales. They breathe through their lungs and turtles need to come out of water for air. The study of reptile is call 'herpetology'.

Profile-

Species of turtle: Red-eared slider (Trachemys scripta elegans), in Singapore some people call them terrapin (terrapene)
NB: I refer to red eared sliders on my website as 'res' or in general 'turtles'.

Found in / Come from: North America and many other parts of the world

Size: Babies are about the size of a local 50-cent coin (1 inch) or slightly smaller, adult can grow up to one feet!

Life Span: Can live up to 30 years, depending on it's environmental condition and health. They are adult at about 5 years old.

Appearance: Easily recognised by the vibrant red patch behind its eyes at both sides of the head, since they were born. Have yellow stripes on its scaled limbs, head and tail. The green colour of its shell will get duller as it age. Its feet are webbed (very visible in hind-legs) to facilate swimming. Most amazing fact is that red-eared sliders from differnent region might have a different shade of green body colour, albino red-eared slider is pale or lemon yellow.

Lifestyle: They spend most of their time in water and they are good swimmers. Sometimes they like to climb onto land to bask in the sunlight. They breathe through their nostrils and so need to come to the water surface to breathe. Live in freshwater. They can easily adapt to Singapore's humid climate, basically they are rather adaptive. Omnivorous. Their means of defence is to withdraw their head and limbs into their shell when sensing danger.

Head to toes:
Beak - the jut down potion of it's upper jaw, strong for chomping food.
Carapace - top shell covering the back
Cloaca - the hole under it's tail, where it excrete waste material or gametes
Keel - Ridge in the shell
Plastron - lower shell covering belly
Scute - Single section of the shell
Note that the turtle's shell is connected to it's rib bones, in fact it's shell is a bone!

How to tell their age?
That's a tough one, but you can estimate their age base on their size and patterns on their shells. Adult res are almost hand size and can grow up to 12'', baby are as small as one and a half inch. The patterns on their shell generally fade with their age.

Care Sheet

>>General Info