Yellow Bellied Sliders

Yellow Bellied Sliders are one of the most popular turtles found in the USA in both the wild and as pets. Although can be found across most of the south east of the country these reptiles tend to be most common in Florida and Virginia as these states offer some great habitats for the Yellow Bellied Sliders to thrive. As a fond swimmer these turtles will occupy land near slow moving rivers, swamps, flooded plains and marshes.

You can identify the yellow bellied slider by it’s olive green skin that is covered in bright yellow markings around it’s head and legs. As you can imagine from the name their bottom shell is yellow however has black spots near the edges which become more prominent as the turtle ages. Some of their markings are very recognisable however not all Yellow Bellied Sliders have them. An “S” marking can be seen on some of their faces and a distinct ? shape can be seen on their stomachs.

Yellow Belied Sliders spend most of their time in the water however as they are a reptile and not amphibians they do need to spend some time on land. They tend to feed in the morning which provides them with enough energy for the day and will spend their nights hidden where there is plenty of foliage. Although when first born they live off a completely carnivorous diet the will slowly include more and more plants into their diet. Eventually plants will make up almost 95% of their diet and they will rarely eat any animals.