There are many turtles that call the pond their home!

The painted turtle is a reptile that is common in North America, and is a water turtle related to other water turtles such as sliders and cooters. There are many different species of turtles. The painted turtle has a beautiful design that looks like it is painted. During very cold winters painted turtles will hibernate, burying themselves for months in the mud beneath streams and ponds. They can also survive in an ice covered pond for months since they do not need to breath oxygen threw there lungs.


Turtles live in ponds, lakes, marshes, and in slow moving rivers that have soft, muddy bottoms. There shell is used to protect them from there predators. In the wild, turtles may live from twenty to thirty years. In captivity it may live well over twenty years. The painted turtle spends most of its time in the water, but often lies on floating logs in the sun, as well as on rocks or by the shore. Better still, give them their own pond, as they can be quite messy.

Keep in mind turtles, like frogs, are predators and will eat your smaller fish. Turtles have also been known to take bites out of tail fins and anything else they can get their mouths on, including the body of a big fish, so if you see a chunk missing from your fish, blame your turtle first. When young the eat mostly carnivorously, dining on larvae, crickets, beetles and maggots. When the turtle matures, it eat more omnivorously, with its primary diet including duckweed, water lilies and algal matter, as well as eating insects, worms, leeches, crayfish, tadpoles, snails and small fish. If you get your turtle from a pet store most likely it will eat turtle sticks or feeder fish.

In early summer, females lay 4 to 15, soft-shelled eggs, in a flask-shaped hole. Females choose soft, sandy soil with good exposure to the sun in which to dig a hole in. Once the eggs are laid, they cover the hole and leave. The young hatch and dig out of their own nest, they are independent immediately. The gender of the turtle is decided based upon the incubation temperature. Low temperatures during incubation produce males, and high temperatures produce females. The availability of water in the nests is more important than temperature in influencing survival, metabolism, and growth of the embryos.

The most common turtles are known as Red Sliders and grow to about 10" at maturity. You must also change the water frequently as turtle feces contain bacteria known as salmonella which can make you quite ill. As turtles grow, their appetites turn towards your plants so keep them fed or they will eat their home. Turtles can be quite adventurous and will disappear for weeks if not 'penned up', but that's a very easy job to do, as they are lousy climbers! But really fast runners and they will dig to escape.