Red-eared sliders are semi-aquatic turtles, this means that they spend most of their life in water, but they still need to get out for air. But how often do they need to get out for air? How long can red-eared sliders hold their breath?
On average most red-eared sliders can spend 30 minutes underwater. The amount of time a red-eared slider can spend underwater is greatly influenced by its level of activity, the more active the turtle is the less time it can spend underwater.
So, the average is 30 minutes, but the average won’t apply in all situations. When sleeping red-eared sliders can spend hours underwater, and when the winter comes most of them spend entire months at the bottom of a lake without any air. So there is more to this than simply how long they can hold their breath.
How Long Can Red-Eared Sliders Stay Underwater
The most important thing that influences how long a red-eared slider can stay underwater is its level of activity. Here is how it works.
If a red-eared slider is casually swimming underwater it can easily do so without having to get out for air for 30 minutes. But if it’s chasing a fish it will most likely need to get out of the water after 10 minutes, as it’s using a lot more oxygen.
And when they sleep red-eared sliders can easily spend 2 or 3 hours underwater.
I have two Red Eared Sliders, and they spend most of their time underwater. During my research, I decided to time them and see how much time they spend underwater on average.
And the result is 11 minutes for my 4 years old slider, and 15 minutes for my 6 years old slider. I didn’t include the times they spend less than 1 minute underwater because the times would have been to something like 2 and 4 minutes. I also want to add that my turtles are very energetic and like to move constantly, so maybe their personalities also contributed to the results.
But keep in mind that while I was trying to see how much time they can spend underwater, they weren’t trying to do so. As most turtles don’t stay underwater until they are out of breath.
And when they were sleeping the average time over one week was 3 hours. Which is quite a lot more than the average time that they spend underwater during the day.
And while 3 hours might sound impressive, under certain circumstances turtles can spend 3 to 4 months underwater holding their breath. And all this is possible due to the unique way that they breathe.
How Red-Eared Sliders Breathe
Like all turtles, Red-Eared sliders breathe through their noses. They inhale air into their two lungs, and then they exhale it, just like all animals do. What makes turtles different is that unlike most animals they don’t have flexible tours, so the mechanics of the process are a little different.
When you and I inhale air, our torso will make itself smaller, and when we exhale the torso will expand. This can happen because our torso is made out of independent ribs that are somewhat flexible. The torso of a turtle is covered with a shell, which is also made out of ribs, but those ribs have all fused to form the shell, and by doing so they’ve lost all their flexibility.
Because turtles don’t have the same flexibility as most animals, the way their lungs and their muscles in that area are set up is completely different. The kind of setup that they have allows them to have better control over how they breathe. Thus allowing them to hold air in their lungs for extended periods, without too much effort.
But being able to hold the air longer won’t do them any good if they have to use it all up very fast. Here comes into play another thing that is exclusive to reptiles, and that is the fact that they are cold-blooded.
Red Eared Sliders Metabolic Rate
Cold-blooded animals are unable to generate their body heat, so they rely on the heat of the environment to maintain their body temperature. The fact that they are cold-blooded also means that they have a slower metabolic rate and that they use less energy and oxygen..
The metabolic rate is the speed at which a body is functioning. A fast metabolic rate means that the animal will have a lot of energy and it will be very active, but it will also mean that it will need a lot more food, water, and air. A slow metabolic rate means that the animal will be less energic, it won’t always be very active, but at the same time, it won’t need too much food, water, or air.
All those things will allow a turtle to spend a lot more time underwater than most animals can. But they alone don’t explain how they manage to stay for 3 to 6 months underwater without drowning. Turtles, so Red-Eared sliders too, manage to stay that long underwater thanks to something that is called the cloaca.
The Cloaca
The cloaca is the orifice positioned at the bottom of the tail. And it’s mainly used as the only opening for the digestive, reproductive and urinary tract. And it can also be used to breathe underwater.
The cloaca works in a similar way to the lungs, when the turtle is inside the water the cloaca will act like a pump that will suck water inside and after it gathered all the oxygen from it, it will expel the water out, and then it will start over.
But even if the cloaca allows Red-Eared sliders, and other turtles, to breathe underwater, it won’t allow them to do so for very long. The amount of oxygen that the cloaca can obtain from water is very low. Under normal circumstances, if the turtle stays underwater for 30 minutes, the cloaca is probably responsible for 2 or 3 of those minutes. But during hibernation things are completely different.
When turtles hibernate their metabolic rates decrease very much. So the amount of oxygen that the cloaca can produce on its own is perfect in this situation. Normally the amount of oxygen that the cloaca produced didn’t let them stay underwater for more than a couple of minutes, but when they are hibernating, the cloaca becomes the only way that they can gather oxygen. And they can do so for at least 3 months without any problem.
Now, there is still one more question that needs to be answered, why are Red-Eared sliders spending so much time underwater if they need to constantly come out for air?
Related Questions
Can Red Eared sliders sleep underwater? Yes, Red-Eared sliders can sleep underwater. They prefer to sleep underwater. When they sleep their metabolic rate will go down, so they will be able to spend a lot more time underwater than they normally would.
How long can Red-Eared sliders live? As pets, Red-Eared sliders can live anywhere from 30 years to 50 years. In the wild, they usually live for 25 to 30 years. The difference is so big because there are a lot of predators and other dangerous things in the wild that will end up hurting the turtle, thus reducing their lifespan.
How big will a Red Eared slider get? In general, they reach sizes between 9 and 12 inches. But in general, the females will get bigger than the males.
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