Water turtles are a joy to watch. A person could spend
hours just watching them. Here are some basic guidelines
for the care of you water turtle.
Housing
Where do your turtles live? Well, they
are water turtles which requires them to have water
accessible to them. You can go two different ways, or
sometimes both depending on the location of where you
live, indoor or outdoor. Let's start with indoor.
Indoor Housing: Your turtles can't
just take over your bath tub. Why? Well, because if
it's like my house, you may only have one bath. Your
turtle may feel like they did something wrong and think
that they are in jail. If I were a turtle, I wouldn't
want to be shoved in a bath tub my whole life, I would
want some windows so that I could watch my owners live
their life (outside the bathroom duty!). You should
house your water turtles in a minimum of a 20 gallon
long aquarium. This is a minimum recommendation, bigger
is better. Your aquarium should have at least enough
water to be as deep as the width of your turtle. You
can add more water depending how good of a swimmer your
turtle is.
They are going to need a place to "bask in the
sun/ lay on the beach." A place where your turtle
can get completely out of the water to help prevent
against any fungal infections. You should place a calcium
block in the water to help prevent their shells from
softening. The temperature should be maintained between
72 degrees and 85 degrees. To do that, you will need
an aquarium heater. Another source of heat that I use
in conjunction with the heater is an overhead light
that I put over the basking (beach) area. Make sure
that you don't set the light too close because, depending
on what you use for the basking area (maybe a rock),
you don't want it to get too hot to burn your poor turtle.
You also don't want your turtle to be able to reach
up and burn itself either.
Another light that is required is an ultraviolet
UVB light. This light "replaces" the sun.
It is important because it emits the ultraviolet rays
essential for turtles to properly utilize calcium and
vitamin D. The ultraviolet also helps in assimilating
food and helps cure minor scratches and other skin problems.
These lights should be replaced at least once a year,
preferably every six months. To simulate an actual day
in your indoor housing, it's best to use a timer (one
that is plugged in the wall with the lights plugged
into the timer). If you don't use a timer, you can just
turn on/off the lights on your own every 12 hours. To
improve your water quality (so that you don't have to
change the water all the time), you should acquire a
good filter.
To see an example of an indoor water
turtle setup click here.
Outdoor Housing: So, your turtle
wants to live outside. The types of water turtles that
can live outside are the hardy water turtles like the
sliders, cooters, and painted turtles in a mild climate
(such as the southern United States). Too hot of a temperature
will cook your turtle, too cold will freeze them.
As with the indoor housing, they need
a place with water to swim in and a place to bask. You
can make a pond out of a child's wading pool. Never
use a glass aquarium outside. This creates a green house
effect and will cook your turtle! "No turtle
soup, Eat more chicken!" For basking you can
put a rock or cinderblock in the area for an island
or "beach". You can also use floating logs
or cork boards. For the females that need to lay eggs,
you need to provide access to a land area. For those
bright and sunny days with no cloud cover, you need
to provide shade. You could use a board or grow some
plants around the edge of the pool/ pond. A good plant
to use is water hyacinth or water lettuce.
What about threats to their safety? Yes,
there are predators out there that would love to have
turtles for a meal. To help protect your turtle, you
should put up a cage-like fence that is enclosed on
the sides and top. That way the neighborhood dogs, cats,
and raccoons can't get to your wonderful, happy turtle.
To see an example of an outdoor water
turtle setup click here.
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If you would
like more information on caring for turtles,
Amazon.com has this excellent book available for
purchase.
(link will open in a new window)
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Visit our Turtle
Setup and Supplies Section
for all of your turtle care needs.
