Jim wrote I have a red eared slider turtle in a 700 gallon pond. Do I need
to bring it
inside for the winter or will it do ok outside. I don't have any debri on the
bottom of my pond for it to bury himself. I live in the Philadelphia, Pa.
area.

Hi Jim,

Two important things for red-earred sliders to winter over in the pond. They'd
like a dishpan of mud at the bottom of the pond and they need a hole open in
the ice all winter long.
While turtles winter over under the ice in natural ponds our garden ponds are
far from natural and an iced over pond can be fatal to a turtle (and fish and
frogs too). Holes can be kept open in the ice with
- a floating heater which warms the water around it (but doesn't heat the whole
pond)
- an air pump with a bubbler placed under the surface of the water (place the
air pump above the ground and up end a bucket or wash tub over the top of it)
- raising the pond's pump and letting the outflow well the water at the top of
the pond.



kathy :-)
algae primer
http://hometown.aol.com/ka30p/myhomepage/garden.html