Keeping a Pet Turtle: Big Decision!

By Leslie Brown

You might have had a pet turtle when you were just a kid. Many children won them at school fairs and neighborhood events. But the turtles didn’t seem to last long, no matter how many times you changed their water or let them walk on a flat surface. So how do you keep a turtle happy as a pet? What do you need to know about the growth and diversity of these quiet creatures?

If cared for properly, turtles can make great pets. But some people buy turtles just for the novelty of having one, and then they end up neglecting them. Before you buy a turtle, do some research. If you wait until you already have the turtle, it might be too late.

Some of the reasons for having a pet turtle are that they are interesting and exotic, and you can enjoy the challenge of keeping them healthy outside of their natural environment. They are not an easy or cheap pet. If you bring them home and just put them in a bowl of water, they will soon die. There are many species of turtle, all of which require different care.

Their care and environment depends on the species of turtle. In fact, they are generally much harder to keep than dogs and cats, or most other pets. They are smarter, need a lot more stimulation, and have more complex diets and housing requirements than your pet store might lead you to believe.

A turtle is really a wild animal, and you should determine where it comes from to try and duplicate its native environment in terms of habitat, diet, exposure to sunlight, and temperature as closely as possible. Most turtle environments have to be a combination of water and land, depending on the species.

There are a number of different types of turtles that can be kept as pets. The most commonly kept and most available are Red-eared sliders. They are the little green turtles that are normally found in the pet trade, and they are sold by the tens of thousands each year.

If well cared for, these turtles should grow to be up to 10-inches long and live for over 50 years. Many species of turtle can live much longer. Some snapping turtles have been found in recent years with musket balls and stone arrowheads embedded in their shells, suggesting that they are well over 100-years old!

The most humane thing to do with a turtle is to keep it in an environment where it can engage in as many of its natural behaviors as possible. For example, some turtles, if kept in a natural outdoor environment, will stamp their feet as a natural hunting behavior. The stamping of feet, sounding like rain, is a way to bring earth worms to the surface.

Turtles climb--even straight up a wall or over a chain link fence! If you put them outside, they must be contained in a screened enclosure that will keep the turtle protected from predators. Turtles are very vulnerable to attacks by raccoons, possums, and even dogs, who can mistake a pet turtle for a tasty chew toy.

Turtles can be quite colorful. Their skin ranges from shades of green and brown to a sepia-yellow color, a salmon color, and can even be bright orange in some species. The shells of Painted turtles, for example, are primarily green and orange or red, and sometimes even blue.

Turtles require fresh, clean water. This can mean either a very good filtration system or daily water changes. One way you can help keep their water clean is to remove them from their enclosure, put them in another container of water (like a bathtub or sink) and feed them there. Be careful not to drain them with the water!

Most turtles are highly interactive with their keepers and many become quite tame in captivity, however they are still wild animals, and sometimes they can bite.

A turtle will live for decades with proper care, so acquiring one as a pet is a serious decision. Even though their original price can be cheap, turtles are not easy to keep. If you don’t take owning a turtle seriously, you’ll end up flushing it down the toilet or burying it in the back yard. If you decide not to keep your pet turtle, find it another good home. Never release your pet turtle--or any pet--into the wild.

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