Harmless · Native to the United States

Painted turtle

Chrysemys picta (Schneider, 1783)

Also called skilpot (Virginia); eastern, midland, southern and western painted turtle
Data updated October 2026

Painted turtle basking on a log, showing its smooth dark shell with red edges and yellow-striped head — Fig. 1 — Adult basking on a log, showing the smooth dark shell and yellow-striped head.

Close view of a painted turtle's head and neck with bright yellow and red stripes — Fig. 2 — Yellow head stripes and red marks on the neck and shell edge.

At a glance

A small, smooth-shelled pond turtle trimmed in yellow and red. It is the most widespread turtle in North America and the one most often seen basking in rows on logs, sliding into the water at the first sign of people.

Identification

Look for a smooth, fairly flat, olive to nearly black upper shell with no keel down the middle and no saw-tooth rear edge. The head, neck and legs are dark with bright yellow stripes, and red bars and spots mark the neck, legs and the edge of the shell. Patterns differ by region: eastern painted turtles have yellow or olive seams that form bands across the back, and southern painted turtles have a red or yellow stripe running down the middle of the shell. Males are smaller than females and have very long front claws.

01Yellow spots behind the eye. Two bright yellow spots or stripes behind each eye on a black head.
02Smooth shell edge. The rear of the upper shell is smooth, with no saw-tooth edge and no keel.
03Red on the margins. Red bars or rings line the underside of the shell edge, and red stripes run along the neck and legs.

Commonly confused with

Red-eared sliderHARMLESS

River cooterHARMLESS

Florida red-bellied cooterHARMLESS

Size

Most adults have an upper shell 4.5 to 6 inches (11.5–15 cm) long. Females are larger than males, and large females reach about 7 inches (18 cm). Hatchlings are roughly an inch long and can nearly double in size during their first growing season.

Range & habitat

Painted turtles basking on a log in a pond with water plants — Fig. 3 — Quiet, weedy ponds with logs for basking are classic painted turtle habitat.

The painted turtle is the most widely distributed turtle in North America and the only one found from coast to coast. It ranges across the northern United States and southern Canada and south to the Gulf Coast in Louisiana and southwestern Alabama. In Georgia and South Carolina it is mainly a turtle of the Piedmont and mountains and is rarely found near the coast. It lives in quiet, shallow water with a soft, muddy bottom, plenty of water plants and logs or rocks for basking: ponds and farm ponds, beaver ponds, marshes, bogs, lake shores, oxbow lakes, slow rivers and creeks, and even roadside ditches and brackish tidal marshes. It adapts well to water bodies made or changed by people.

Diet & predators

Painted turtles are omnivores that feed in the water. Young turtles eat more animal food than adults. The diet includes water plants and algae, aquatic insects, snails, crayfish, mussels, tadpoles, small fish and dead animals.

Feeds on

Water plants and algae
Aquatic insects
Snails, mussels and crayfish
Tadpoles, small fish and carrion

Preyed on by

Raccoons, skunks and foxes (eggs and young)
Herons and crows (young turtles)
Largemouth bass and other large fish (young turtles)
Snapping turtles (young turtles)

Freshwater snail on a water plant — Prey — freshwater snails.

Great blue heron wading in shallow water — Predator — herons (young turtles).

Behavior & seasons

Painted turtles are active by day and bask often, most of all in the morning, on logs, rocks and mats of vegetation, sometimes stacked on top of each other. Basking turtles squabble over the best spots with open-mouth threats, shoving and biting. At the first sign of danger they slide into the water. Males wander between ponds in spring and fall, apparently looking for mates, and females travel overland to nest.

They are among the first turtles to appear in spring, usually in March, and stay active into October or November. On warm winter days they may come out to bask. They spend the winter underwater, resting in mud or decaying plants on the bottom, under logs and stumps, or in muskrat and beaver lodges.

Reproduction

Mating takes place in the water, mostly from March to June. A courting male faces the female and flutters his long front claws near her face. Females nest from May through July, digging a flask-shaped nest by day, usually within a few yards of water but sometimes up to half a mile away. A clutch holds 2 to 11 eggs, usually 4 to 6, and a female may lay one or two clutches a year. Eggs hatch after about 62 to 80 days; warmer nests produce more females and cooler nests more males. Hatching happens in late summer, but in many places the young stay in the nest through winter and come out the next spring. Males mature at about 4 years and females at about 6 to 10 years. Painted turtles are thought to live 20 to 40 years.

Conservation

The painted turtle is not federally listed and is common across its range. It is Wisconsin’s most abundant turtle and Connecticut’s most numerous. Many populations stay stable because the species copes well with altered habitats. Local threats include road deaths of females looking for nest sites, mowers on golf courses, drowning in fishing traps, shooting of basking turtles, and competition for food and basking spots from red-eared sliders released by pet owners.

In captivity

Painted turtles are sometimes kept as pets, but wildlife agencies ask people not to take them from the wild, because removing turtles weakens local populations. Some states restrict trade in native turtles; Virginia, for example, prohibits buying or selling native species. In the United States, the sale of turtles with a shell under 4 inches long has been banned since 1975 because of the risk of spreading Salmonella; the FDA enforces this rule with state and local health agencies.

Care is more demanding than many people expect. A captive painted turtle needs a clean aquatic setup, a dry basking spot, the right temperatures and lighting, and a varied diet of plant and animal foods, and it can live for decades. Never release a captive turtle into the wild: it may not survive, may not be native to the area and can spread disease.

Keep reading

Common snapping turtle

Red-eared slider

River cooter

Sources

Data updated October 2026 · How we build these pages