Red Eared Slider Growth Rate | How Fast Do Red Eared Sliders Grow?

Just recently I got my first Red Eared Slider baby turtle, and at the moment he has a shell that is nearly 2 inches long. I know that Red Eared sliders will get bigger than that, But what I don’t know is how fast they will grow. So I decided to do some research on the growth rate of Red Eared Slider, here is what I found out.

Red Eared Sliders grow around 3 inches during their first years, as they reach adulthood they will only grow around 1 inch per year until they reach their full size. Males usually reach sizes between 8 and 10 inches, while females are between 10 and 12 inches.

If your Red Eared slider is not a baby anymore you can expect it to grow around 1 inch per year, but as I said this number doesn’t necessarily apply to all Red Eared sliders, and it’s drastically influenced by a lot of factors. So let’s take a closer look at those factors and see how they influence the growth rate.

How the Diet Influences the Growth Rate of a Red Eared Slider

The diet is probably the biggest factor that influences the growth rate. Without a proper diet, no turtle can reach its maximum growth rate.

If you want to help your turtle have a healthy growth rate, then you should make sure that it has a proper and balanced diet. Red Eared sliders are omnivorous, which means that they will fruit, vegetables and meat. Since they are able to eat a big variety of food, ensuring that their diet is balanced shouldn’t be that hard. In general, a proper Red Eared slider diet should contain the following:

• Meat
• Fish
• Pellets
• Insects
• Worms
• Fruits
• Vegetables
• Aquatic plants

There are a lot of things on the list, especially with the wide variety of fruits, vegetables, and pellets that are out there. But this should also help you since there are a lot to choose from.

The most important thing that turtles take from food that influences their growth is protein. This doesn’t mean that the rest are not important, it just means that they don’t play such a big factor in the growth of a turtle. Protein is the main thing that helps turtles grow and develop a healthy shell.

But be careful, feeding too much protein to your turtle can also cause problems. If a turtle eats too much protein it will start developing a disease called pyramiding. A turtle that suffers from pyramiding will start developing deformations on its shell that bear a resemblance to small pyramids, hence the name. But this is something that doesn’t happen if you give your turtle a balanced diet that contains a healthy mix of fruits and vegetables with protein sources.

Something else that contributes to the growth of the turtle is calcium. A good and natural way to give your turtle calcium is through vegetables, usually, vegetables that are green and have left are a good source of calcium, just make sure that they don’t contain too many oxalates. Oxalates are substances that will intervene in the calcium absorption process, and that is not something that you want. A couple of vegetables that you should stay away from are spinach, even if it contains a good amount of calcium it contains too many oxalates, and iceberg salad, which has little to no nutritional value.

One important thing that you have to keep in mind is that younger Red Eared sliders, usually those under 2 years, will rarely eat something else besides meat. Even if they are omnivorous as adults, baby Red Eared sliders tend to be carnivorous. So don’t worry if your baby Red Eared slider refuses to eat fruits or vegetables. This is something that also happens with other turtle species as well.

To find out how many proteins or calcium a food has, simply google the name of the food and the answer should appear immediately. After doing this a couple of times, I personally started to learn them, and I am sure the same thing will happen to you. And soon you will have a general idea of what you should give your turtle to eat, and whatnot.

Now let’s move to the next influential factor, the basking area.

How Basking Influences the Growth Rate of a Red Eared Slider

When turtles bask they are doing two important things. First, they regulate their body temperature, and second, they get exposed to UVB rays.

UVB light plays a vital role in the production of Vitamin D3 which is essential for the calcium in the body. Without UVB light the turtles won’t be able to get the proper amount of calcium which can lead to improper bone growth, metabolic bone disease, softshell, shell rot, and many other bad things.

So without UVB light turtles wouldn’t be able to properly use the calcium that they store in their body, so they won’t be able to grow at their full capacity. If you want your turtle to reach its maximum growth rate then you should make sure that it has a proper basking area.

If you want more details about how to properly light and heat a basking area, check out this guide:  Guide for Lighting and Heating a Turtle Tank and Basking Area. In this guide, you will find all the information you need to make the basking area of your turtle as pleasant and efficient as possible.

Now let’s move to the next factor.

How the Age Influences the Growth Rate of a Red Eared Slider

As I mentioned at the beginning of the article you can expect your Red Eared slider to grow anywhere from 2 to 3 inches in its first year. In general, most Red Eared sliders will reach the size of 4 inches during their first year.

After they reach that size their growth rate will drop considerably, and they will only grow about one inch for the next few years. But as they get older, and they approach their maximum sizes, their growth rate will drop even more.

Most male Red Eared sliders will reach sizes between 8 and 10 inches, and most females will reach sizes between 10 and 12 inches. So if you have a male Red Eared slider that is 8 inches right now, you can expect him to grow only half an inch per year from now on, or not grow at all.

There is not too much to increase the maximum length they will reach besides taking good care of them. The rest is determined by genetics.

Until now I told you about things that you can do to help your pet Red Eared slider have a healthy growth rate, but let’s also take a look at the growth rate of wild Red Eared sliders, because things are a little different there.

The Growth Rate of Wild Red Eared Sliders

Wild Red Eared sliders are biologically speaking the same as pet Red Eared sliders, but the environment that they live in is completely different, and there will also be a new factor that drastically influences their growth rate.

When it comes to food, wild turtles definitely have it tougher than pet turtles. Unlike pet turtles that are fed every day by their owners, wild turtles have to hunt and scavenge every day for food. And naturally, they won’t be able to have the same healthy and balanced diet as pet turtles, so their growth rate will suffer because of this.

When it comes to basking, wild turtles don’t have it that bad. They always have access to the sun, which is actually better at delivering UVB rays than most UVB bulbs. So basically there is no downside for the wild turtles when it comes to basking.

Age and genetics are the same for both of them so no difference here.

The biggest difference comes from this new factor, the weather. Pet turtles don’t have to face the changing weather from outside, since they are always in a home, where the temperature is more or less constant. But wild turtles have to deal with the weather and this means that they have to face the winter outside.

During the winter Red Eared sliders hibernate, this means that they will usually be inactive for 3 to 5 months per year. During the time that they hibernate, turtles don’t grow at all. So instead of having 12 months per year at their disposal to grow, they only have 9 or even less, depending on the weather.

Hibernation is a little more complicated than that, if you are interested in this subject, I’ve already discussed it in more detail in this article: Do Turtles Hibernate?

Common Questions

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.

Do red eared sliders need to be in the water all the time? No, it’s not good for them to spend a lot of time out of water, but they can spend some time outside of the water.

Can I make my turtle grow faster? Besides taking proper care of your turtle there is nothing else that you can do. You just have to wait for your turtle to grow.

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