What are some things to know about owning a pet turtle?

Question

so my parents have agreed to letting me get a pet turtle..i already have 3 dogs and 2 fish but i want something else =] im not going to get a big one just a small one..but whatare some things to know about owning on? like how big of a tank do they need? and do they need half water half land? my friend has one and she has a pretty good sized tank and itsall land except this little thing that has water. but ive seen some ppl only have water in the tank but wont the turtle get tired? ahha sorry lots of questions =]

thanks!

Answer 1

Does your friend have an aquatic turtle or a tortoise???????????? She is going to kill it if it is an aquatic turtle and it has no water!!!!!!!! First for you to own a turtle, you have to know "small turtles" do not exist! They are called baby turtles and off course like any other living thing on the planet they will grow, you have to get at least a 50 gallon tank though, no way of avoiding that, you absolutly HAVE to, turtles are not easy to keep at all, and are high maintenence. China town is selling these baby turtles illegally! They are nothin but crooks and criminals for endangering the lives of these baby turtles! And he** no mini turtles are not real!!!!!!! they are only babies yet to grow and heck yes they will grow like mad, usually up to 12 inches for females, and up to 10 inches for males. Please learn about these creatures, no animals are "mini" only a cellphone can be "mini" not a living thing. . Heres how, this is a basic setup, but you should learn more about turtles as well.

read all of this and see if you have this setup, it costs at least $300, and is a regular setup.

************ This is a setup for a red eared slider the most common type of turtle, they get up to 12 inches, but you will see them as babies at a store commonly, so know that they will grow very big**************

You will need to get a 50 gallon starter tank and upgrade to a 75 gallon later on when your turtle is over 6 inches...If you can not get that big of a tank right now then for now you can use a huge rubbermaid container filled up with clean warm water 5/6 of the way. The water should be 75-82F, that can be achieved by buying a water heater at the petstore, along with a water filter. Water filters that are best are canister filters, like the Rena xp3 filter which costs $200, but filters very well. Do buy a filter please, even a cheap one at $25, is better then none at all, since turtles are extremely messy and p**p-ful (haha). The bottom of the tank should be bare, no gravel because they could choke on that mistaking it for food. On top of the water you need 3 things, 1. a basking dock ( buy a large size zoomed basking dock). 2. you 100% need to buy a basking lamp+bulb, you buy them separatly, then s***w the bulb in ( 50 watts) and shine it on the basking dock over a mesh hood( cut a hole out of it and place the light there!). 3. This is very important, you need a uvb light. It is a long thin light, you need to get the actual lamp+ the long skinny bulb. Reptosun 5.0 is the best bulb( together costs $55). Shine that onto the basking dock as well. Turtles need these together because they use the uva for heat, so they stay warm ( the basking site should be 90-95F, not colder) and they need the uvb rays to metabolize calcium and vitamin d3 for a stronger shell ( like you need it for your bones!) The diet for the turtle should be reptomin pellets ( and other nutricuos pellets!) crickets, mealworms, bloodworms, shrimp, and krill. All of this is found dead at the petstore!;) They also need vegetation, get kale, mustard greens, romaine lettuce, and collard greens. Drop all of the food in the tank once a day, and remove any leftover bits after a few hours. By the way ALL of the protien food ( dead food, that was alive once) should be dusted with a calcium supplement ( powder) and you need to get a cuttlebone found in the bird aisle of the petstore and drop it in the water for him to knaw on, keep it there for a while (month) until he eats all of it, then get another. Once all of these things are done your turtle will be pretty happy!

Answer 2

i will never get one they have poison i have 4 russian  tortoises sooooooooooooooooooooooo much better

Answer 3

I will tell ya if you do everything right yours can last as long as mine..

Sliders, cooters , painted, map, yellow bellied all are basically the same and require the same basic care.

I have had my 2 slider  girls for 36 yrs. Plus an 8 and 5 yr old and now a 2 yr old adopted from this site.. Been in a pond for almost 7 yrs now. Got them on my 18th birthday!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/29035692@N0...

The bigger the environment the bigger the healthier the turtle. Remember 10 gallons for every inch of turtle. I have used kiddy pools and plastic pond liners from most nurseries and worked great.

Did you know that they need to bask under a reptile light UVA/UVB for 8 to 10 hrs a day for the vitamin D that they need to grow. So that means getting a turtle dock also.

Leave the heater on 75 to 78 degrees always.

Their water needs to be clean otherwise they get sick easily from dirty water cause they p**p allot.

Total Body length: 5-8" average, up to 12 inches max. Life span: 15-25+ years

Males have the longer front nails and are used in mating. And are considered mature at about 5 yrs old. You can’t start sexing till about  3” across.

You need a good filter system! Gravel larger than they can swallow.

You need to feed them feeder guppies, goldfish or minnows for protein and calcium daily drop 20 or so in the tanks and watch them disappear in a few days!

This way when they swim for their dinner they get exercise also!

They sleep at the bottom of rivers, streams. lakes or ponds or your tank to avoid predators like coyotes,  foxes, owls, hawks, possums, raccoons and even some wide mouth bass.

TOSS in a bird cuttle bone in the water for calcium. it will dissolve real slow and if they eat it that’s fine!!

They can have garden worms, meal worms, snails, crickets, flies, crayfish small frogs, dragon flies and  anything that moves only as a treat.

They need leafy greens Romaine, Butter lettuce. (Iceberg and cabbage are bad for them, any other leafy greens will do) for vitamin A that they need at least 3 to 4 times a week.

You probably already know that they get sick easily, shell rot, respiratory sickness, lopsided swimming, coughing, blowing bubbles from their nose.

**Swollen cloudy eyes means lacking in Vitamin A. Which we all need for good eyes. Google ‘vegetables with Vitamin A.

Contact the “www.anapsid.org/societies, for a turtle vet /  rescue in your city and state.

I wish you luck.

Answer 4

Don't forget about box turtles.  They might require more maintenence, but they are so much more fun to play with.  if you have any questions about box turtles, feel free to email me!

Answer 5

turtles need large tanks. they need 10 gallons per inch of their shell (ex- 4 inch turtle needs 40 gallon) make sure you are not fooled by petstores that sell little turtles and say they will stay like that.  the smallest of turtles grow to 5 inches.  most petshop turtles get over a foot long. those turtles are called red eared sliders.  aquatic turtles will need more then half of their tank to be water.  in one corner of the tank should be a basking area. over the basking area needs to be a uv light with a uv bulb inside.  this light should turned on in the morning and turned off at night just like in the wild.  the water should be kept at 80 degrees.  so a water heater that lets you control the temp will need to be provided.  turtles get sick very easily if they arent kept in clean conditions so make sure to clean the tank once a week.  turtles should be fed pellet foods and live foods.  live foods should consist of crickets and or mealworms.  the pellets should be high in vitamin a and calcium.  when feeding pellet food feed it as much as it can eat in 10 minutes.  on days that you feed live foods feed it 3 to 4 crickets or mealworms.

you mentioned that your friend has a turtle and that it doesnt have much water.  is this is an aquatic turtle (slider, map, etc)  then it needs to be kept in the conditions above.  so for the health and happiness of the turtle you may want to pass that along.  

what i recommend-

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Answer 6

It doesn't really matter what size tank you get, as long as he can move around comfortably.  The size of the cage determines how big he gets, among other things.  Bigger cage = bigger turtle, if he's well taken care of.  Clean the cage as much as possible.  I had to clean my turtle's cage  once a day.  I would say a minimum of 1 cage cleaning every three days.  It doesn't matter much how much water he has in his cage, as long as he has enough room to move around in it.  I would recommend some land for him to rest on, also.

Answer 7

you can get salmonella from it.