Kathy Dickout, age 10, of Peterborough, Ontario, Canada, for her question:

How should I tend a store bought painted turtle?

The true painted turtle is usually too smart or too shy to be captured. This is why he is hardly ever bought in a pet shop. There we find multitudes of poor little creatures dressed up to pass as painted turtles. And, sad to say, the gaudy paints daubed on their helpless little shells usually ruin their lives.

Mother Nature herself decorated the true painted turtle. Usually he has a border of red tiles around the edge of the shell on his back. His under shell is plain yellow or mapped with blotches of red and yellow. And there are red and yellow stripes on the skin of his neck. It is not likely that your store bought turtle resembles this handsome fellow. Chances are, your pretty little pet is a baby slider turtle daubed with paint. And the first order of business is to do your best to remove this daub.

This is not easy because the shell of your baby pet is quite fragile. The paint can do serious damage but ordinary paint removers can be even more harmful. If you are lucky, you may find that the paint is a bit flakey. Then you gently very ¬gently lift off one flake at a time. A grown up with kind and steady hands may help you. If that paint stays on his shell, it prevents the spot it covers from growing properly. As he grows his shell becomes deformed. This business of selling painted slider turtles should be stopped    and maybe we turtle owners can help.

Now let's figure how to tend your unpainted turtle. He is called a slider because he has a clever trick of sliding into the water to avoid trouble. So his home away from home should have a bit of land and his own private swimming pool. A suitable home for him can be made from one of those glass walled fish tanks. Build up a sizeable island of rocks and add fresh, clean water. Place his home near a window where he will get lots of filtered sunshine. He is most comfortable when the weather is between 75 and 80 degrees. If the room temperature falls below 60 degrees he loses his pep. When things are just right, he will spend a lot of time in his private pool and come up to his island to bask in the sunshine.

The slider is not fussy about his food, though it is wise to smear it with a little cod liver oil in case he does not get all the sunshine he needs. He enjoys small bits of meat, such as hamburger. He likes vegetables of almost every kind  and for dessert he enjoys a small helping of fruit. Make sure that any leftover food is removed before it gets rotten. Naturally you will test him to learn which types of food he prefers. And naturally you will make sure that the little rascal eats a balanced diet of assorted meat, fruit and vegetables.

The hardest job is getting the wretched paint removed from his shell. When this is done, you will see his true colors. His dainty shell is leafy green and he has yellowish streaks on his head and neck. There is a bright red line running from the corner of each eye and around the back of his neck. You will wonder why in the world anybody would want to daub extra color on such a pretty creature.