Turtles Pets - Before You Buy

Turtles pets can be a great addition to your family and provide hours upon hours of enjoyment.  Having said that it is very important to do your homework up front before you go and buy your new turtle or turtles pets. There are a wide range of types of turtles that can be different in things like personality and size.   It is very similar to choosing which breed of dog or cat is right for you.

Always take into thought before you buy time you have to clean, amount of space you have, age of the owner, how much money you can spend on your turtle, state laws, and many other things.

A lot of turtle owners have started out with a little turtle in a five or ten gallon fish tank only to realize that the turtle would soon get too big for this tank and need a bigger one. There are types of turtles which will stay little enough to thrive in a 40 gallon long aquarium, which is the smallest I would ever go. It is imparitive that you know how big your turtles pets grown adult size will be up front so that you can plan in the beginning.

The movie Rocky shows the main character having some small turtles as pets, and this is not the proper way to care for them.   Rocky’s wife worked at a small pet shop and Rocky had two baby turtles in a very small, round, glass fish bowl in his apartment.  They had very little water to swim in, no UVB light, no heat lamp, and way to small of an enclosure. I won’t go into explicit detail of how you can care for your turtles pets in this version, but if you would like to get the information now, just click one of the links in this article.

Most states do not allow you to own turtles that are under four inches in length except for universities or research facilities. It is said by some that there can be a bigger risk of getting salmonella from turtles under 4 inches in length. Some time ago some children contracted salmonella when they put these small turtles in their mouth.  That is another reason why it is so important to have proper supervision around turtles pets.

Use sound judgment and keep your hands clean each time after handling your turtles pets or any other part of the turtles habitat and you should remain problem free. If you should want to get started right and learn some basic information prior to acquiring your turtle……..or if it’s too late and you already bought it…..click one of the links on this page and start moving in the right direction to owning turtles pets.