Thinking About a Pet Turtle?
By Maureen Fleury
When you go to the pet store, the most common type of turtle you will see is a Red Eared Slider. If your Mom or Dad, have decided to allow you to own a turtle, remember it requires a lot of your special care. Putting them in a bowl of water is not good enough.
The experts recommend that you keep the turtle in an aquarium of a watertight plastic container. If you have one turtle, then you would need a 10 gallon tank. If you have 2 turtles, you would need a 20 gallon tank. The rule is to have 10 gallons per turtle. The aquarium has to be set up properly in order to allow the turtle to swim and to crawl out of the water to lie on a dry surface.
Turtles also need a a UV ray lamp to keep help them stay warm when resting on a dry surface. You can buy this lamp at the pet store. The lamp also helps the turtle dry off after being in the water. This keeps the turtle’s skin healthy. Be careful not to leave the lamp on too long or the tank will get too hot. The temperature in the basking area should not exceed 90 deg F.
The best set up is to use one end of the aquarium as a basking area. It should be 1/3 of the aquarium (that’s a bit less than half of the aquarium). You can use large rocks in the basking area. To make it easier for your turtle to get out of the water and on to the basking area, you can make a ramp of wood or plastic.
The water must be filtered. The experts recommend a canister filter, just like what you would use for tropical fish aquariums. Even with having a filter in the tank, you still must clean the tank once a week. You should clean the filter once a month. Many people put large gravel pieces or small stones on the bottom of the aquarium. Do not use aquarium gravel because the turtles can eat it and get sick. The water must be warm and an aquarium heater is the best way to keep the water at a constant temperature. The water temperature should be kept between 75 to 80 deg. F.
What does a turtle eat?
Food pellets made special for turtles is available at pet shops. Turtles can be fed daily or 2-3 times weekly, depending upon their age and size. In order to keep germs and disease out of the tank, some experts recommend removing the turtles for the tank and feed them in a box or a large plastic bowl. If you do pick up a turtle, be sure to wash your hands afterwards with an iodine-based soap. You can buy these soaps at a pharmacy. One brand name of the soap is called “Betadyne”.
Red Sliders like vegetables so chopped carrots or romaine lettuce is good. You can also buy tubiflex worms at the pet shop. They are dried and placed in a container. Some people buy cuttle bone at the pet shop and leave it in the tank to nibble on.
Be sure to cover your tank if you have a cat or dog because all animals are curious of other animals.
You can’t really play with a turtle but you can spend hours watching them swim and bask on the rocks. They do require care but it is fun to watch them play and to study their habits.
About the Author:
Maureen lives in Coquitlam which is a suburb of Vancouver BC Canada with her three boys. In addition to the "humans" in the household, there is a menagerie of 4 cats.
Maureen's interests are animals and computers (more like an obsession). She enjoys online publishing, and running around taking pictures with her digital camera.
Maureen may be contacted by email at mfleury@shaw.ca.
Article courtesy of Suite101.com.
