Striped Mud Turtle — Fact Sheet

Kinosternon baurii · Striped Mud Turtle · Dreistreifen-Klappschildkröte

📋 At a glance

🏠 Enclosure

• Single adult: at least 90 x 45 cm footprint; larger preferred
• Paludarium, stock tank, or shallow-water turtle tub with land access
• Strong filtration and easy water changes
• Damp land/nesting zone for digging, especially for females
• Avoid deep featureless water, dirty substrate, sharp gravel, and escape gaps

🪨 Enclosure furniture

• Shallow water, ramps, dry basking area, damp land, hides, plants, and visual barriers
• Stable roots, cork, or rocks that cannot trap the turtle
• Protected filter intake
• No unstable stacks or holes that can wedge the shell

💡 Lighting

• UVB required over the basking area
• Moderate-output linear UVB tube preferred
• Heat lamp over the dry platform
• Replace UVB lamps on schedule; glass blocks UVB
• Photoperiod: 10-13 h; no colored night light

🌡️ Temperature

• Basking spot: 30-32 °C

• Warm zone: 23-26 °C water

• Cool zone: 21-23 °C

• Night: 20-24 °C

• Measure water, land surface, and basking surface separately

• Use thermostats and heater guards

• Avoid heat rocks and hot ramps

💧 Humidity & water

• Clean water plus both wet and dry microhabitats
• Land area should be damp for digging but not sour or saturated
• Shell must dry fully under the basking lamp
• Dispose of water through household wastewater
• Never release turtles, eggs, plants, feeder animals, filter sludge, or water outdoors

🪳 Diet

Feed regularly:

• Aquatic turtle pellets, snails, worms, insect larvae, freshwater shrimp, leafy greens

In moderation:

• Aquatic plants, small roaches, whole fish, limited fruit

Avoid:

• Processed meat, bread, salty foods, goldfish-heavy diets, wild feeder fish

Supplements:

• Cuttlebone or calcium-rich foods; UVB; cautious multivitamin use only as needed

🩺 Health — warning signs

• Shell pits or smell → shell infection or dirty water
• Swollen eyes → water quality, diet, or infection issue
• Wheezing or tilted floating → respiratory disease
• Repeated digging without laying → possible egg binding
• Bite wounds → cohabitation stress
• Obesity → rich diet or overfeeding

Consult a reptile- or exotic-animal veterinarian for breathing signs, egg-binding concern, shell lesions, injury, weakness, or prolonged refusal to eat.