Question
All my family members (including me) need to leave the city for a family function for 3-4 days. I have 2 red ear slider that I have to leave at my home for the duration.
I have 2 questions:
Can I leave them unsupervised in their tanks with the appropriate amount of food for several days?
Can I give them to my neighbour who can keep them with them for the span? However I would like to have to go with option 1 so kindly guide me for the same.
Answer
I'm going to give a somewhat dissenting answer:
Don't worry at all. Red eared slides are among the most resilient and adaptive reptiles, they are the cockroaches of the turtle word; the teenage mutant ninja turtles are red eared sliders.
Now seriously, RES survive in a broad range of temperatures and environments (they are invasive in Spain and live in snow fed rivers, barely above freezing point during the winter); and the refuse in the water will have came out of your turtles so it won't bring in anything that wasn't there in the first place.
I leave mine on his own for weeks at a time; change water before you leave, put your filter on minimum and install an automated feeder that can handle their pellets.
They will be dead bored if they are used to you playing with them, but that will be it.
Answered By - Diego Sánchez