Adult Turtles
Adult turtles are pretty simple to take care of, as long as you have the housing and equipment. First of all, tank space. Tank space is measured by how big your turtle is. You should have 5 gallons to every square inch of your turtle. You could probably get away with 3 gallon per square inch, but 5 is the adequate tank space. So roughly, you should have a 50 gallon tank for a 10 inch turtle. You can most definitely get away with two or three turtles in that tank. The reason behind that is; a lot of the time, there will be one or two basking so they all won't be in the tank at once. Again, that isn't good for a long period of time. If you have to, split your turtles up into two separate tanks close to their adequate needs. As for the equipment, you will need a good filter or several little ones. Semi-Aquatic turtles are the messiest turtles. They will dirty their tank faster than you think. Good filtration is the most important thing you can get for a turtle. If you have a 10 gallon tank, you should probably get a filter for a 20 gallon tank. This will also prevent you from cleaning the tank all the time. The second thing you will need is a basking area. In my photo gallery you will see pictures of one of my turtle tank setups. It has a ramp that leads out of the tank and on to a large piece of wood that is longer than the tank itself. It has rocks to collect heat because, turtles love to lay on warm areas, and rocks collect heat nicely. A basking area is piece of land area your turtle can get on to completely dry out. Basking is an important task your turtle or turtles will do. Basking helps shed their scoots. Scoots are the little shapes on the turtles shell. Each section sheds so the turtle can grow. Along with the basking area, you are going to need a UVA and UVB lighting. Those are special light bulbs made for reptiles. It allows the turtle to soak up the nutrients it needs from the sun. Because the turtle is not outside in the sun, it is deprived of all the nutrients it needs to grow and stay healthy. I would highly recommend a heater for the tank. As adult, the turtles really could do without the heater, but in the winter time it is good to have one unless you want your turtle to slow down due to hibernation. They will not hibernate, but as the water is colder than what they need, their bodies start to slow down as a hibernation effect. This will not harm the turtle, they will probably just sleep a little more. What food should you feed your turtle or turtles? 50% of your turtles diet should be dark leafy greens. The best store bought food to feed your turtle is Reptomin. As for snacks, you can feed your turtle(s): shrimp, worms, insects like crickets and grasshoppers, crawdads, and fish. To be more specific, you should NOT feed you turtle more than 2 gold fish a year. Gold fish are harmful to your turtle if they have consumed too many. Other than that they will eat any fish they can fit in their mouth. If you are wanting to keep fish in the tank, your best bet is to buy semi aggressive or big fish. Semi aggressive fish will not allow the turtle to snap at it, and if you get a big fish; the bigger the fish the more they leave it alone. I recommend getting a fish as big as the turtle. Now, if you get a semi aggressive fish, make sure it can not harm the turtle in anyway. The biggest "NO NO" is putting a fish with teeth in with your turtles. Your goal is to keep both alive. Here are 3 more things you are going to want to keep on hand. Number 1, Calcium. You can have calcium in different forms, powder to put in their food and a bone that floats on top of the water. If the turtle has a lack of calcium their shell will get soft. When turtles have a soft shell, their shell doesn't protect their insides and can die. A soft shell can also lead to shell rot which also leads to death. Make sure your turtle has plenty of calcium. Number 2, Turtle eye drops. Sometimes your turtles hurt each others eyes with their claws or they get something in their eyes that damage them. The eyes drops help restore your turtles eyes. And finally number 3, Wound Healing Aid. Turtles come across many accidents that lead to injuries. These drop are only to be used on skin and shell. They are not to eat it or have it in their eyes. When using the eye drops or the wound healing aid, make sure you take your turtle out of it's enclosure. Make sure when you put your turtle back into the habitat, you rinse it off first. Neither one of these products should be swallowed. Lets talk about how big your turtles will get. Well that all depends on the turtle you have. So if you want, you can ask me, on my help tab at the top, and tell me what kind of turtle you have. I will reply as soon as I can. If your turtle has found a mate and has mated, you are going to have to prepare to for your turtle to lay eggs. You are going to have to make a spot where your female can get out and lay her eggs. The best thing for her to lay eggs in is sand. Make sure it is damp at all times to keep the eggs moist. The sand should NOT be soaked or submerged in water. There should be just enough moisture to hold the sand together. The ideal thing to have them in is something with a lid. You are going to want to separate the eggs from the adults because, the grown turtles can go dig in the sand later and destroy the eggs. Another reason is, once the eggs hatch, they are going to head for the only water that is available to them. If the adult turtles are in the same water then the baby turtles won't have a chance to live due to turtle will eat anything they can fit in their mouths. So let your creativity run and see if you can make a sand area you can remove from the basking area once the eggs are layed. You should keep the egg's temperature around 84 degrees F. Don't use a basking light or a heat lamp, that will only cause the eggs to spoil. Eggs spoil at 95 degrees F. The simplest way to heat the eggs is to have the eggs in a room where the temperature is about 84 degrees or use your creativity again and set the container holding the eggs into a bigger container filled 1/3 of the way up the egg container. Then put a heater in the water and set it at 80 degrees. That is to make sure the temperature doesn't go over. Make sure to have a lid with holes to release hot air when needed and to let fresh oxygen in for the babies just in case they hatch. How long does it take for the babies to hatch? Again, that depends on what kind of turtle you have. Tell me what kind of turtle you have and I will let you know. Once they hatch, there is where all the responsibility comes into play.