The Basics of Slider Care
Lindsay Rock

1Owning a pet is a great responsibility. Cats and dogs need love and attention, medical care, food, water, and much more. Dogs require walks several times a day. Hamsters and gerbils need food and water, fresh bedding for their cages, and toys to gnaw on. Many people decide to purchase turtles as pets. They mistakenly believe that caring for turtles is easier than caring for other pets. Toss them into a tank with some water and food and you’re done, right? Wrong. Properly caring for turtles takes a lot of time and a lot of careful attention.

2One of the easiest turtles to find in pet stores is the red-eared slider. These turtles live in the wild in most areas of the United States, especially in the Southeast. They are freshwater turtles that fancy ponds, marshes, and other slow-moving bodies of water. They are excellent swimmers, but you can often see them lounging in the sun on rocks and logs. This lounge time is known as “basking.”

3Red-eared sliders are easy to recognize. Like all turtles, they have shells. The top part of a turtle’s shell is the carapace. The bottom part is the plastron. The shells of red-eared sliders are greenish brown in color. Sliders’ skin is green with yellow stripes. Just behind their eyes, red-eared sliders have two red spots, which explain how they got their name. Sliders have webbed feet, which help them swim, and sharp claws.

4If you choose to get a red-eared slider as a pet, keep in mind that these turtles grow to be as large as dinner plates! Over time, you will have to buy a bigger enclosure in which to house your slider, as it will outgrow its smaller home. Setting up a tank for a slider is no easy task. These turtles need both water and a basking area. You must carefully monitor water temperatures. Water that is too cold or too warm is not good for sliders. Water temperatures should range between seventy-five and eighty-five degrees. In addition, you should clean the tank almost daily. The basking area will need a heat source, such as a light bulb. Turtles are cold-blooded. They need external heat to keep them warm because they cannot produce heat within their bodies. The temperature in the basking area should be between eighty-five and ninety degrees.

5Red-eared sliders eat a variety of foods including both plants and meat. They will eat tiny fish, snails, worms, and insects. In the wild, they will often feed on aquatic plants that naturally grow in the water. In place of these plants, you can feed them dark, leafy greens such as lettuce. As sliders age, they eat more plants than meat.

6One final note: Always thoroughly wash your hands after handling your slider. Turtles carry bacteria that can make people very sick. Be sure to cleanse hands with warm, soapy water. Scrub around fingernails and between fingers to make sure that you get your hands clean.
Lindsay Rock is preparing a presentation using this passage. She will add one graphic to go with each section of this passage. The current graphic is MOST APPROPRIATE for section

A) one.
B) two.
C) three.
D) four.