my friend found a baby snapper about 1 inch. its getting kind cold hear aboutm 30-mid 40s. is it too late let the turtle go? help!

probably. i woudl be very surprised if any made it if they are hatching this late.

so my friend should keep him through the winter? i will look to see what robyn did with her snapper so this one can live.

what is an appropriate meal for these guys? my friend has it in a bowl from his kitchen with a piece of slate for him to bask on. I think i may take it and put it in my 5.5 gallon once the guppies and the shrimp grow bigger. I planon realesing it in the spring.

when kept in captivity, once released it is too hard for them to get used to catching food before they starve to death. so if he is to be released you should keep him on live food. i have not rehabbed anything before, although there is nothing wrong with him it is effectively rehab, only instead of waiting for him to get better, you are waiting for nature to get better. i would keep live foods, moving foods, in whatever tank he is in. assume that whatever is in with him is food, including guppies and shrimp. i would do as big of a tank as possible in order to simulate nature, maybe even a huge rubbermaid container.

i can do a continer. i was also thinking of a heat lamp for heat instead of a heater. i will just do water changes instead of getting a filter. its only an inch long, should i feed it crickets then i can feed it feeder guppies when its bigger?

feed guppies now, you will be surprised at how much they can take down. you should also try to get the nuisance snails that come in with live plants, some pet stores will happily give them to you, or let you forage through their palnt tanks looking for them as long as you dont destroy their plants. you should also get ghost shrimp, they will be a good feeder for him. but crickets will be good too. i would definitely get a filter, toxins and bacteria wont be visible in the water, so it may still look clean and be a turtle biohazerd. and you could always use it for another tank later. i would do a whisper 20i, 30i, or 40i (depending on amount of water) in a very large rubbermaid container.

Please read my page at http://www.fishpondinfo.com/hatchling.htm which has a lot of details about the baby snapper I overwintered. It's snowing here tonight. A hatchling snapper wouldn't have a chance unless it were still underground in its nest or already had found a hibernation site in the water. It was hard to get Snappy to eat at first. The only thing I got him to take the first few months was live blackworms. See if you can find them. Once he did put on some size and started eating, he would take earthworms and other larger bugs and things. He never did eat fish but I only kept him until spring. It is vital that the water be shallow for baby turtles. It takes them time to gain the muscles to swim around. If not allowed to rest in shallow water, the baby could tire out and yes, drown. A heater is a good idea. Snappy didn't eat at all until I added one. Both full spectrum fluorescent lighting or sunlight and a heat lamp should be used. To make it easier for him to go back to the wild, as Reptile Guy said, stick to live food if you can and only contact the turtle to clean the cage. Snappy did eat commercial turtle food too but not until about 3-4 months old.

my friend has a geck o so we can feed him crickets. he also has a 10 gallon and we are upgrading it to a 55 today so he could go in there. we will do guppies when he is maybe 2 inches. it snowed hear to so i guess hes stuck inside for the winter.