RES ?'S

[Ellisfamily]

My bf decided to bring home a red eared slider that a friend of his could no longer keep. He's had it in a 10g tank for atleast a year with nothing more than a filter. No type of light, or heat. It also only had an inch of water and was NEVER able to swim around. The RES is small. Like the size that you get when you first buy it from the pet store. The poor thing couldn't seem to figure out how to swim for atleast 15 mins.

What I did to hopefully fix his set up....
I had a spare heat lamp from my beardie so he now has a basking lamp. I went out and bought a tank heat and a floating dock. I cleaned and filled up his tank with tap water and the water conditioner (like I do with our fish tanks). I'm keeping the tank around 80°. I just ordered a ReptiSun UVB for him. I know he needs a bigger tank but with our 7 pets (1 being a cat that just had a surgery that cost over 1k) I just can't afford it for a couple of weeks. I had to get him proper lighting first.

My questions are:
So far does the set up sound ok? Except for the tank size!
From what I've read I should feed him his pellet food and also greens similar to what my dragon eats?
Is there anything else I can do for the lack of uvb, vitamins and everything else that he hasn't had for over a year?

Any tips or advise would be great!

 

[Floof]

Sorry, response is a little late, but maybe a turtle-specialty forum can help you? http://redearslider.com/ is a fantastic RES care site, and I believe they have a forum there, too... http://www.turtletimes.com/ is a good turtle forum, as well, and they may be able to help you with your poor little turt. I know there's a couple members on http://tortoiseforum.org who have experience rehabilitating turtles, as well, including one member with a 9 year old RES the size of a hatchling that doesn't really know how to swim because it was SO mistreated (a lot like yours was, but they only fed it once a week or something--for 9 years!!!).

I don't have any experience with turtles, and therefore can't supply any advice... But I do hope you can find the help you need on the aforementioned websites/forums. Good luck!

 

[Floof]

Oops! It posted twice and I can't find a delete button. =P Feel free to ignore this one...