Aquatic Turtles as Pets

Aquatic turtles can make wonderful pets provided that they are looked after and cared for in the right manner. There are many types of aquatic turtles some of which can be kept as pets. Before you get one home as your pet, there are many points to be considered regarding their overall care. Caring for turtles as pets can be quite a time consuming affair and will also need some amount effort and hard work to be put in. They need to be monitored on a daily basis, similar to keeping tortoises as pets, and setting up their habitat indoors can be quite a task. Once you know about the specifications required for their indoor habitat and their care, you can decide upon whether you would really like to keep aquatic turtles as pets or not.

Types of Aquatic Pet Turtles

As mentioned before, there are many different types of turtles. The ones mentioned below can be kept as pet aquatic turtles.

Slider Turtles: Sliders are the type of turtles that are most commonly kept as pets. The Red Eared Slider is one the most popular type of pet aquatic turtle. It is found mainly in the southern parts of the United States and is a semi-aquatic species of turtle. They can grow up to 12 inches or more in length. The species of turtles related to them include the Chicken turtles and the Cooters. Read more on red eared slider turtles.

Box Turtles: Box turtles are mainly found in North America and prefer spending more time on land than in water. They can live up to 100 years and make complex but fun pets. Getting box turtles as pets would require you to enter into a long term commitment to care for them.

Painted Turtles: Painted turtles are also found mainly in north America and can be easily recognized due to the various colors they have on themselves. They are olive green to black in color and have stripes of yellow and red on the sides of their neck and legs. They can grow up to 10 inches in length and have specific habits which can make them quite complicated as pets.

Other popular species of aquatic turtles as pets include mud turtles, reeves turtles, soft shell turtles and musk turtles. Read more on types of pet turtles.

Caring for Turtles

Caring for turtles would include setting up an appropriate indoor habitat and arranging for their food, water lighting and temperature requirements. An important point to keep in mind would be that turtles do not make good pets for children. Most children often loose interest in caring for them as it is quite a tedious and time consuming process. Turtles are also carriers of the Salmonella bacteria, which can easily infect children. Read more on care for pet turtles.

Housing
The enclosure required for the housing of turtles should depend upon the size and the number of turtles that you will keep. A 20 gallon aquarium should be the best choice for an enclosure and it should be placed in an area with lots of shade. Keep it as simple as possible because the enclosure will need regular cleaning, so the simpler you keep it, the easier it would be to clean.

Water
Aquatic turtles require a constant source of clean water to maintain their health and long life span. The water should be changed regularly as turtles are quite messy and the water tends to get dirty quickly. Having a heavy-duty filtration system in place can be helpful in maintaining the quality of the aquarium water.

Lighting and Temperature
The temperature of the water in the aquarium should be between 24°C to 29°C so that the water remains warm all the time. You will also need to expose them to UVA and UVB light on a regular basis to prevent them from metabolic bone diseases. For this purpose, you can install UV bulbs in the aquarium. You will also have to make arrangements for them to crawl out of the water and bask. The temperature in the basking area should be similar to the temperature of the water.

Feeding
Turtles need to be given a balanced diet in order to maintain good health. Their diet should include a wide variety of frozen fish like goldfish, trout, smelt and guppies. You can also feed them dry cat or dog pellets, earthworms, mollusks and snails. Avoid feeding them commercially available turtle food as it is very low in nutritional value. Read more on what do turtles eat.

For more information you can refer to aquatic pet turtles. Aquatic turtles as pets should be handled carefully. They are not very fond of being handled and they might take it as a predator attack, so be really careful when removing them from the aquarium and placing them back. Provide them with the care that they require and they will surely make very good and fun pets!