How to care for outdoor and indoor pet turtles

baby turtles

Are you in search of a new best friend? If you are looking for a friend that will always listen and not increase your stress level, it’s time to bring home a baby turtle as a pet.

Note: baby turtles (any turtle/tortoise under 4 inches in diameter) are illegal to sell/purchase in Maryland. We don’t recommend people “finding” wild ones and try to keep them as pets.

But before you pick out your new best friend, you need to know the basics about caring for a pet turtle.

Whether you heard or not, turtles are fascinating pets. It’s important to know how to care for turtles because the care is a little more complicated than cat or dog care.

You cannot care for a turtle the same way you would care for a cat or dog. Domestic pets like cats and dogs need grooming products, pet toys, litter boxes, crates and shots.

Turtles need healthy diets, proper living arrangements and quality treatments. If you learn how to care for your turtle properly, your turtle can live for decades.

What is the ideal living environment for a turtle?

A turtle should have plenty of light, shade and moisture in his or her home adobe. The water source must be clean and a basking lamp should be provided for warmth.

You may want to create an area on your home property where you can recreate the natural habitat of a turtle. This can be accomplished with a turtle pen in your backyard.

If you choose an outdoor turtle pen solution, your turtle will most likely hibernate in autumn. Turtles don’t come out of hibernating until spring.

If you prefer to keep your turtle as an indoor pet, you will not want your turtle to hibernate. Turtles hibernate for months.

For indoor turtles, you should purchase a tank that can contain a minimum of 40 gallons of water. In the tank your turtle should have both land and water areas. You also need a sun lamp to keep your turtle at its ideal temperature.

The ideal turtle tank temperature is about 80 degrees during the daytime and 70 degrees at night. It’s important to maintain these ideal temperatures because turtles are cold blooded and face challenges when adjusting  to temperature changes.

Always do a daily or weekly cleaning of the tank. The tank should have fresh water at all times. Try to keep the tank free of waste as much as possible. We recommend using spring water rather than tap water as your turtle’s drinking water supply.

This will help you protect your turtle from dangerous bacteria.

turtle pen

Here are essentials you will need:

-An aquarium
-Gravel
-Rocks/sticks
-Turtle food pellets

Your turtle will need 50% to 75% of its diet to include protein.

Find all you need for turtle by checking out our reptile care products.

My Pet Store And More is here to educate customers on how to better care for their pets. We offer quality products with the best prices around. We provide friendly service with the ability to help guide customers to find exactly what they need.

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Source:

http://petturtle.com/care.htm

http://www.ehow.com/how_2321453_care-pet-turtle.html

http://animal.discovery.com/pets/how-to-take-care-turtle.htm

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