Need soft shell advice?

Question

since i live in florida i find turtles alot

today i found a baby soft shell turtle

unfortunetely im not going to keep him because i have two others to take care of and hes alot different from them. I dont want to release him into the wild because hes to little and i dont think hed survive. I was thinking of selling him to a pet store that sells soft shells. Is that a bad idea? Im not sure. i want whats best for the fella. i love turtles and i dont want the creature to be miserable..=/

Answer 1

I hate so say this because I know where you are coming from. I, too, am an animal lover and own several herps,etc, but It's nature. If he's strong he'll survive. 90% of all hatchlings die their first year in captivity due to improper care. In addition, soft shells don't make good pets and are a little demanding as far a aquatic turtles go. Furthermore, it may be illegal to collect it in the first place, but I know FL usually has more lax rules. It IS illegal to sell turtles under 4" in the US and I think most, if not all states prohibit the sell of indigenous animals(animals native to that area). There is a much larger issue here and that is that one should not encourage the collection and sell of wild caught animals. It is irresponsible and a HUGE problem in FL. Let nature take care of it.

Answer 2

Turtles are independent after birth.

Releasing it will be ok, not too many pet stores will have soft shelled turtles anyways.

Release it back to the wild.

Answer 3

Why would you even CONSIDER selling a wild turtle to a pet store, if you want what's best for it?

It will almost certainly die at the pet store, but if not, it will die at the home of the stupid kid that buys it!

Let it go where you found it! Baby turtles have been getting by for millions of years in the wild without human assistance.

Answer 4

what makes you think it wont survive.if baby turtles didnt survive in the wild then where do the adults come from.turtles have been surviving since the dinosaurs with out human help. why would that all change now?release it back were you found it. removing turtles from the wild, hurts  native turtle populations and could also be illegal. besides pet shops sell turtle to inexperienced keepers who kill turtles all the time.

Answer 5

you should try and do some reasearch on them thats always best  

Answer 6

He will be miserable if you don't release him. He was meant to be wild, and will be much more likely to die in captivity than he would in the wild.

Do the right thing and let him go back where you found him.