Captive Care for your Turtle Morphs & Albino Turtles

 Aquatic Turtle Morphs is here to provide you with the best care and information possible for your new aquatic turtle morph, red eared slider morph, albino turtle and baby turtle.  Here we will explain how to setup and keep your hatchling all the way through to keeping your adults.  Most turtle morphs require the same care and setting up as normal turtles of the same species.  All are easy to keep if setup properly.

  We will start with the care of baby albino turtles, baby aquatic turtle morphs, baby red eared slider morphs and baby turtles.  Babies are generally around 1  1/2 inches when hatched out of their eggs.  We like to keep all of our hatchlings and raise them up to a better well started size.  We consider that size around 2 inches.     

  
 We want to ensure that they are all vigorously feeding and starting to grow before we offer them for sale.   Some people like to feed bloodworms but bloodworms have nothing to offer to a turtle as far as nutrients towards its diet.  Bloodworms are only good for filling their belly not their health.  We never offer any of our aquatic turtle morphs, albino turtles, red eared slider morphs or baby turtles bloodworms as a staple diet.  We would only suggest it as a treat.  Along with dried shrimps and silversides as other treats.  

  
 We start all of our hatchlings off right away with nutritional turtle pellets.  Aquamax 3 is a tiny sinking pellet that offers lots of nutrition and helps the turtles locate it by smell.  Once they locate it they chow down on it non stop.  At the same time we offer Zoo Med hatchling floating pellets.  These too are easily located by smell and the same size as the sinking Aquamax 3.   We like starting with the sinking first due to the lack of vision in albinos.  They tend to feed better off the bottom as opposed to feeding at the surface.  Once they get curious enough they too will start to frenzy at the surface to feed.  

    
 Once they grow a little larger we offer them Mazuri Aquatic Turtle Pellets.  This is a larger floating pellet that suits their diet just fine and is perfect size for turtles in the 2.5 to 4 inch range.  Once they reach adult hood you can switch to Mazuri small crocodile diet.  This is full of nutrition and is a larger size pellet that suits the adults needs.  

 
 As for any baby turtle, correct care is the most important issue for long term health of your new baby turtle.  When acquiring a new baby you must previously already have setup its new home before purchase.  All aquatic turtle morphs, albino turtles, baby turtles do better in shallow water when young.  We like to keep the water around 3-4 inches in depth for the first month until they start eating vigorously and can handle finding the food on their own.  Generally this is our job.     

  A spotlight is utilized for a basking spot where the turtle can sit and rest and absorb heat. The basking spot should have a range of warmer and cooler areas from 80-100F so that the turtle can choose how warm they want to be when basking.  For your setup you should have a tank with a basking light and 10.0 UVB bulb for optimal conditions.  The UVB helps them produce Vitamin D3 which helps with calcium absorption and metabolizing which keeps their bones and shells hard and healthy. UVB is usually considered essential when keeping baby turtles indoors.

 Basking is important.  Turtles like to bask.  It also helps with food digestion and other things beneficial for the turtle.  Most all species grow and do better when water temperatures are between 78-82 degrees.  That is the temperature range we like to keep our aquatic turtle morphs, albino turtles, red eared slider morphs and baby turtles in for optimal health.  Proper temperature ranges that aren’t too cold for both the basking area and the water help prevent your turtle from catching respiratory infections.

 To prevent these issues we suggest keeping your water temp at the temperature explained above.  You can do so by purchasing an affordable turtle tank heater made specifically for turtles.  They will be pre-set and keep your water temp at ideal temperatures.  To house a few aquatic turtle morphs, albino turtles, red ear slider morphs or baby turtles in general we suggest setting them up in a tank big enough for them to grow.  You can start with a 20 gallon long as babies but keep in mind babies grow fast if cared for properly and will need to be bumped up to a larger tank after a few months.  We would then suggest a 40 gallon breeder all the way to a 75 gallon for 1-6 turtles in the first year.  After the first year, larger enclosures such as cow troughs or Waterland tubs, or even a custom outdoor pond, will help ensure the happiness of your cherished pet turtle.

 
 Make sure you supply them with adequate filtration for any tank size.  Along with adequate weekly water changes.  Generally we recommend doing a 25% water change PER week unless the water is cloudy then you can do a 50% water change.  After the first year if you value your love for your turtle you can build it an outdoor pond and enjoy it all the way up to adult hood. 

  Most of the species we carry are native to the United States so they do well in most states.  As adults they can be kept in outdoor koi ponds setup in your backyard.  The sky is the limit for “eye catching” setups you can make for some beautiful turtle morphs, albino turtles, red ear slider morphs as adults.  They are some real show turtles and make everyone WOW when they see them.  They get prettier and prettier with age and once large enough you too can start breeding these wonderful turtles!