A Few Guidelines For Keeping Pet Turtles
Most of us grew up having turtles as pets at one time or another, or at least this was true for our parents and grandparents. The most common pet turtle was the Red Eared Slider, more commonly known as the Dime Store Turtle, or simply "the Turtle". The second most common pet turtle type was more than likely the Easter Box Turtle. Some true aficionados may have kept a Diamond Back Terrapin, or other exotic turtles as pets. While you don't find as many turtles in people's homes these days as was once the case, the turtle remains popular as a pet.
Know Your Turtles - In keeping any animal as a pet, you first should find out a few things about the animal, its habitat, habits, feeding requirements and so on. Turtles are no different. You don't purchase a turtle in a pet store, take it home, put it in a bowl of water and expect it to survive. If the species you purchased happened to be a land turtle, it wouldn't survive for long, as they can't swim. Even a water turtle needs a bit of land, so a bowl or aquarium designed just to hold water is out. Just what is it you should know then if you want to keep turtles as pets?
Water, Land And Plants - Starting with the knowledge that you need water for the turtle to swim in (they prefer to eat while swimming), and some land to roam around or a rock to sun bathe or bask on, the next thing to take into account is the size of the turtle. A turtle with a shell the size of your hand isn't going to do well in a habitat designed for a 2-inch wide dime store turtle. With water, land area and overall size taken into account you can start designing the layout of the pet turtle's future habitat. Just how much a turtle will appreciate decorative features is hard to say, but they probably won't mind a little variety in their surroundings.
Adding a few plants is fine although don't be surprised if the turtle eats much of the foliage you put in with it. To find the best solution for a type of plant that will work, you can either do some research or just learn by trail and error. Of course you don't want to introduce any plant that might be toxic to the turtle. Chances are pretty good though, that the plant of your choice will eventually be eaten. Turtles as pets do that.
Now you have your tank, you have built up some land area, and added some decorations. Don't forget to add a little ramp or something of that order that makes it easy for the turtle to climb out of the water. A small log or plastic ramp will serve quite well. Turtles are not particularly good at climbing over walls or up steep cliffs to get on land.
The next step is to add water. Temperature is important here, though as long as the water is roughly at room temperature you should be on safe ground. Just avoid placing the turtle's habitat where the water temperature can become too warm or too cold. The nice thing about the water situation with the turtles as pets is that they aren't terribly fussy. Distilled water can kill many types of fish, and even fresh tap water can do them harm. Turtles don't seem to mind much one way or the other. They might prefer pond water, but that would be a preference, and not a necessity. (continued...)