I think I have just joined the ranks of those adopting a baby snapper. I have a turtle tank with 2 red earred sliders about 8 inches long each. I found a baby snapper in my swimming pool filter. It looks just like the photos of Snappy you have posted, so I'm pretty sure it's a snapper. I don't live near any natural water bodies; there's a pond about a mile away and river 3 miles away. How did it get here? Will it be able to live in my slider tank? I have it in a separate tank right now, fearing introducing any parasites, etc into the sliders. What's next?

The mother snapper will walk quite a ways from water to lay her eggs. The baby may have hatched half a mile from water. I would not put him with the sliders. While young, the sliders may pester the snapper while the tables would turn once the snapper got larger. As for care and what to do, my hatchling page at http://www.fishpondinfo.com/hatchling.htm should help with that.

If I release the baby now, will it be able to survive or should I try to keep it and release it in the spring? (I live in Maryland.)

I think it's still warm enough here (I'm in MD too) to release baby snappers. When I got Snappy, it was a few weeks later, he was not healthy, and we had a cold snap (pun intended!). If you want to keep the baby until spring, hopefully my site will be useful to you. Survival is, of course, always an iffy thing but I don't think temperature is yet a problem.

I found a baby snapper about 2-3 inches long. I live near two ponds (small) the beginnings of the Severn River and a stream. I was wondering if I can release him near the ponds. None of the bodies of water are near cars or people and I am hoping that he can move to any of the water areas he wants. Is this alright or will he try and go back to where I got him from? As of now, I have him in a gerbil carrying cage with about 1.5 inches of water and detris (plant debris and mud) with a few worms. I need to know what to do with him and don't want to keep him. He's cute but illegal. Please email me (wildcatz@mac.com) or post a reply as soon as you can. I don't want him to die!

It should be fine to release him by those ponds. Snappers usually stay in the water. They are less apt to walk on land and try to walk back to their home pond. How long have you had the snapper? You're in MD? I am too. It's legal here to have a single snapping turtle but I think (not sure), it has to be over 4".

I have a baby snapper and all he (she?) eats are worms. I can't get him to eat more than about 2 to 3 worms a day. He's only about 3 weeks old and I'm running out of small worms. I went to a bait shop but the earth worms there are HUGE. I don't know what else to feed him. I'm thinking of trying fry or feeder fish smaller than his 1.5 inches. I keep him in my room during the night and put him outside under some weeds for the rest of the day. (I read the section of care and housing and I make sure the water isn't too hot.) I make sure he gets sunlight and heat and a little salt and shallow areas but I don't know what else to feed him! I tried some mummichogs but they were about 2 inches long and he hid from them. He won't eat slugs and as I said, the nightcrawlers are enormous. Do you have any suggestions or do you think I should just let him go? (The temperature now is around 76-85 F).

I got a snapper about the same size as Natlie and I was wondering about feeder fish. Can my snapper get a disease from a feeder fish? If so, how do I fix it so I can just throw the fish in the tank and remove anything it didn't eat?

My baby snapper mostly ate live blackworms, later eating earthworms. If you can't get the smaller troutworms (versus the huge nightcrawlers), you can try blackworms, mealworms, baby turtle commercial pellets, or small fish such as young guppies or minnows. "Feeder" goldfish are usually too big for a hatchling. I tried guppies once with the snapper I had, and he was not interested at all. If your area is not sprayed with pesticides and herbicides, you can also collect any small animals that you find in the yard to try.

You put your snapper outside during the day? I assume it's a contained area, or he'd just walk away. Be sure predators can't get to him. You can let him go whenever you want if this was a wild hatchling which I assume it was. How do you know his exact age? Snappers are usually born in the fall and not the spring is why I ask.

Most feeder fish are in very poor health and carry a lot of diseases. Most of those are only going to affect other fish and not a turtle. But, a fish with a lot of bacteria and/or fungus on it certainly could increase the bacterial and/or fungal loads enough in the water to at the least make it dirtier if not unsanitary. I would quarantine, fatten up, and take care of feeder fish for a few weeks before feeding them to a turtle (if I had a turtle and time to care for more fish; easier said than done). If the concern is the desire for really small fish, then how about buying a half a dozen or so guppies, setting them up in a tank, and feeding some of their fry to the baby turtle (assuming the turtle eats the fish, or you get stuck with more pet fish like I did). When you put fish in with the turtles, if they're not eaten right away, they may deteriorate if the water is not of good quality (turtles are messy as we all know and put out a lot of waste too). Water changes and a small filter would be a good idea.

I put him in a container during the day under some weeds so he can have shade.

I read your section on the yolk and hatchlings. He didn't have any yolk hanging out but he didn't eat anything or show interest in anything for about a week or so. I just assumed he was a baby because of that and the fact that he's only about 2 inches excluding the tail. (He was also scared of minnows but I don't know if that was just because they were bigger than he was).

Are bloodworms too big? I've never seen one but a couple of fishing friends mentioned them.

Newborn snappers are only about an inch long (not including tail) so the one you found was probably born last fall like most snappers are. He probably didn't eat at first because of the adjustment to new surroundings. He's not going to eat fish that are too big to fit in his mouth. Adults may do that but even they stick with appropriately-sized "prey."

Bloodworms would be an excellent food to give the baby snapper. They are just the right size. He would love live ones but may even eat frozen ones (sold for aquarium fish) if the water moves them around so he thinks they're alive. Bloodworms are midge larvae (kind of like gnats as adults) that are bright red. They're in my pond filters.

Thanks for the info about the feeder fish. I will try guppies and the blood worm things too.