All animals

Where is the red-eared slider legal?

Trachemys scripta elegans. Restricted in 4 of the 5 jurisdictions checked. Every entry quotes the rule it comes from.

Alabama: no restriction found for red-eared sliderAlaska: no restriction found for red-eared sliderArizona: no restriction found for red-eared sliderArkansas: no restriction found for red-eared sliderCalifornia: no restriction found for red-eared sliderColorado: no restriction found for red-eared sliderConnecticut: no restriction found for red-eared sliderDelaware: no restriction found for red-eared sliderFlorida: no restriction found for red-eared sliderGeorgia: no restriction found for red-eared sliderHawaii: permit required for red-eared sliderIdaho: no restriction found for red-eared sliderIllinois: no restriction found for red-eared sliderIndiana: no restriction found for red-eared sliderIowa: no restriction found for red-eared sliderKansas: no restriction found for red-eared sliderKentucky: no restriction found for red-eared sliderLouisiana: conditions apply for red-eared sliderMaine: no restriction found for red-eared sliderMaryland: no restriction found for red-eared sliderMassachusetts: no restriction found for red-eared sliderMichigan: no restriction found for red-eared sliderMinnesota: no restriction found for red-eared sliderMississippi: no restriction found for red-eared sliderMissouri: no restriction found for red-eared sliderMontana: banned for red-eared sliderNebraska: no restriction found for red-eared sliderNevada: no restriction found for red-eared sliderNew Hampshire: no restriction found for red-eared sliderNew Jersey: no restriction found for red-eared sliderNew Mexico: no restriction found for red-eared sliderNew York: no restriction found for red-eared sliderNorth Carolina: no restriction found for red-eared sliderNorth Dakota: no restriction found for red-eared sliderOhio: no restriction found for red-eared sliderOklahoma: no restriction found for red-eared sliderOregon: no restriction found for red-eared sliderPennsylvania: no restriction found for red-eared sliderRhode Island: conditions apply for red-eared sliderSouth Carolina: no restriction found for red-eared sliderSouth Dakota: no restriction found for red-eared sliderTennessee: no restriction found for red-eared sliderTexas: no restriction found for red-eared sliderUtah: no restriction found for red-eared sliderVermont: no restriction found for red-eared sliderVirginia: no restriction found for red-eared sliderWashington: no restriction found for red-eared sliderWest Virginia: no restriction found for red-eared sliderWisconsin: no restriction found for red-eared sliderWyoming: no restriction found for red-eared sliderDistrict of Columbia: no restriction found for red-eared slider

Select a state for the rule behind its colour. Alaska, Hawaii and the District of Columbia are drawn out of position so they can be clicked.

What the colours mean

  • Banned (1)No legal way to keep one, and no permit to apply for.
  • Permit required (1)Legal, but you need a permit or licence before the animal arrives.
  • Conditions apply (2)Legal without a permit only if a stated condition is met, such as a generation, a size or an indoor-only rule.
  • UnclearThe rule genuinely does not resolve for this animal. Ask the agency before relying on it.
  • No restriction foundNothing in the body of law we read restricts this animal here.

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Every restriction on the red-eared slider

4 of the 5 jurisdictions checked restrict this animal in some way. The rest had no rule we could find.

Montana

Banned12.6.2215(6)(n)
Red-eared slider – Trachemys scripta elegans;

On Montana's prohibited species list, so it may not be possessed, sold, purchased, exchanged or transported in the state.

How this rule works: Montana runs a white list, which is unusual. § 87-5-705(1) says a person may not import, possess or sell any exotic wildlife unless it is allowed by law or commission rule, so an animal that appears on none of the three lists is not permitted rather than unregulated. § 87-5-706 is the statutory noncontrolled list and § 87-5-702 puts rodents, cats, dogs and Eurasian ferrets outside the scheme as domestic animals.

Montana Code Annotated Title 87, Chapter 5, Part 7, Importation, Introduction, and Transplantation of Wildlife →

Hawaii

Permit requiredList of Restricted Animals, Part B
Trachemys (all species in genus)

Part B is the restricted list for private and commercial use, so unlike a Part A animal this one has a route, but it needs a permit rather than being freely importable.

How this rule works: The list that matters most for pet keepers and the one almost never quoted. Conditional approval means importation and possession are allowed subject to the conditions the Board of Agriculture sets, unlike the restricted list, which is research and exhibition only.

Hawaii Administrative Rules, List of Conditionally Approved Animals (Hawaii Department of Agriculture official PDF) →

Rhode Island

Conditions apply§ 3.7(D)
All persons other than a bona fide researcher, or a licensed pet shops and their transportation agents are prohibited from possessing Red Eared Slider turtles unless they are kept indoors as pets in a manner that will prevent their escape or liberation into the wild. Keeping of these animals in any type of outdoor enclosure is prohibited.

Keepable indoors only, and only a pet shop or a researcher may import one. Pet shops must tell buyers about the indoor requirement at the point of sale.

How this rule works: One of the most species-specific schemes in the country. § 3.6 defines domestic animals, § 3.7 sets general prohibitions, § 3.9 governs permits, and § 3.17 is the long exempt list of animals that need no exotic animal possession permit. Anything not domestic, not native and not on the § 3.17 list needs a permit.

250-RICR-40-05-3, Rules and Regulations Governing the Importation and Possession of Wild Animals →

Louisiana

Conditions apply§ 101.G.3.a.xii
Red-eared Slider—Trachemys scripta elegans;

A restricted turtle subject to the same two per species limit. Louisiana also bars relocating or releasing sliders off the site where they were caught, and allows landowners to remove nuisance animals only by humane euthanasia.

How this rule works: Rewritten in January 2025 and now one of the strictest reptile rules in the country. Three tiers: prohibited nonnative species, restricted nonnative species needing a permit, and a general rule that any constrictor over eight feet needs a restricted snake permit.

LAC 76:XV.101, Reptiles and Amphibians, Recreational and Commercial Harvests; Prohibitions →

For the full write-up, including the states that get reported wrongly, read the red-eared slider legal guide.

Past the legal question? See the red-eared slider profile.

How to read this

A state with no colour is one where nothing in the law we read restricts that animal. That is not the same as a guarantee: it means no restriction was found in the specific body of law checked for that state, which is recorded alongside each jurisdiction. Cities and counties regularly ban animals their state allows, and several states say so in their own rules.

Hatched grey means the rule genuinely does not resolve. Usually a definition arguably reaches the animal without naming it, and the honest answer is to ask the agency rather than to guess. Those entries are marked unclear on purpose rather than being rounded to a yes or a no.

Every entry links to the regulation it came from. None of this is legal advice, laws change without much notice, and the agency that issues the permit is always the last word. For the federal layer and how state schemes are structured, see the exotic pet legal hub.