Red Eared Slider
Knowing about the red eared slider is one of the best ways to determine is the red ear slider is the best pet for you. In the wild the red eared slider inhabit many different types of freshwater systems. These freshwater systems would include but not exclude areas like streams, ponds, swamps, lakes, and rivers. Generally the red eared slider prefers to be in a quiet area such as marshes, ponds, and slow rivers. These areas provide the red eared slider with plenty of basking areas and soft bottoms that is accompanied with an abundant amount of aquatic vegetation. Most red eared sliders will stay in the waterway until it is completely dry before moving to another more promising area.
The red eared slider is a cold-blooded animal and will usually be found during the day sitting in the sun on a rock, log, or any stumps that are near the water. Some red eared sliders can even be found up to three high basking in the sun. While the red eared slider is very hard of hearing they are sensitive to vibration they are very alert while they are basking. These vibrations allow the red eared slider the time to make their hasty retreat into the water if they feel threatened in any way.
At night the red eared sliders sleep in the water. There are a couple of ways that the red eared slider will choose to sleep. The red eared slider will choose to either rest on the bottom of their water area clinging to any submerged branch that just happens to be there or one can find them with their throat inflated floating along the water.
Red eared sliders will generally start hibernate when temperatures reach about 50 degree Fahrenheit or 10 degrees Celsius. Unlike when they bask in the sun, when the red eared slider hibernates they will generally try to find an area alone. One of the few reasons the red eared slider would hibernate with other red eared sliders would be lack of appropriate hibernation space. Another interesting side note about the red eared slider is during warm spells they will become active for however long the weather is warm.
Most people do tend to think of the red eared sliders as an herbivore when in reality they are omnivores. While the younger red eared sliders’ diet consist of about 70% animal and 30% plant the adults tend to live off of 90% plant and 10% and animal. This would indicate that as the red eared slider matures it relies less on nutrients of animal and more on the nutrients of plants. When we look at what consist of the animal part of the red eared sliders’ diet we find that they mainly survive on tadpoles, aquatic snails, fish, crawfish, mollusks, and crustaceans. The red eared slider generally consumes a few different types of plants such as water lilies, duckweed, arrowhead, and hyacinth. The red eared slider can usually be found enjoying their meals underwater and late in the afternoon.
