About Yexalen Expertise I am experienced with the care, lighting, heating, breeding, sexing, species identification, and general keeping of mostly aquatic turtles. I also have experience with tortoises and land turtles and can certainly research any question that I do not know the answer. I can not answer medical related questions as I am not veterinarian certified. I prefer not to answer questions on animals that you or somebody else has taken out of their natural environment unless the animal was in danger, ill, or injured.
Experience I have owned six aquatic turtles and have been researching turtles for several years. I have been on several question and answer sites under this category. I also have started up a web site focused on reptile care with a portion of it for turtles.
Education/Credentials I have been around turtles sense a very young age and always found them fascinating and because of that it has lead me to researching day after day, reading book after book, and finding endless amounts of web sites with information.
Question I recently found 3 baby turtles on the road right near the Jacksonville fl zoo. I decided to call the zoo to find out more information but its 4th of july week and the proper people to get ahold of will not be in for a couple days. I do not know what type of turtle it is and was wondering how to take care of them until I can reach the appropriate people. Here is a brief description of them: Webbed feet and hands with small claws, black green and yellow carapace, bright Yellow plastron, the shell is not dome-shaped and has 3 ridges. There is no red in this turtles anywhere I have notice. I appears to be very similar to a slider but the coloration doesnt match. I will also place a link to a picture of the turtles to better clarify what I attempted to explain.
Answer Hello Andrew, those are very cute turtles. They appear to be Yellow Belly Sliders. Very similar relatives of the Red Ear Sliders.
They are so similar that they can be taken care of exactly like the Red Ear Slider. The care is almost identicle when it comes to setup, food items, temperatures, lighting, etc.
So I will direct you to this site because the information is far too much to type here
These turtles are native to this area and now is about the time for mating season laying season and hatching season. So its likely they are wild little guys. But contact the zoo and maybe an animal rescue for more information on what to do.
