The turtle is the quietest and most calm pet. However, her inconspicuousness does not mean that she needs less attention and care. To properly care for your turtle, there are a few rules you need to carefully study.
How to feed the turtle?
The water turtle is a seemingly harmless creature, but it is a real predator. Therefore, you will have to feed her with animal food.
Mostly, water turtles are fed a variety of insects, earthworms and snails - all of which can be bought at any pet store. At least once a week, the animal should be given meat. Better to find out what kind of meat your turtle prefers. Some turtles are happy to eat beef, others love chicken, but not a single representative will give up fish. It is advisable to pre-cook the fish and clean it of small bones so that the turtle's body can easily digest food.
It is desirable to fortify the feed. Calcium is especially useful for water turtles, which can be given once a week.
As turtles age, they switch to a "vegetarian diet". Therefore, the older the animal, the more often it is worth adding different vegetation to the diet, in particular algae. How often you need to feed your turtle also depends on age. Young people need daily food, while adults have enough food for three days.
"Interior" of the aquarium
Although turtles spend most of their lives in water, they still need land. Therefore, the aquarium must have an "island" with a lamp that will warm the area of the hill. This "island", as well as the entire soil, should consist of sand or gravel.
Be careful, turtles are childishly curious, everything that is in their reach will definitely be tasted. Therefore, make sure that the "grains" of the soil are large, larger than the head of a turtle. It also follows that it is useless to add other inhabitants to the turtles: fish and plants.
In the aquarium, you need to maintain a constant temperature of 25 ° C, changing the water every month (provided that a filter is installed). It is advisable to have thermometers that will give you information about the temperature. Note that turtles can only be comfortable in a large aquarium, so take care of this before purchasing an animal.
Age
Before you decide to start a turtle at home, think about the fact that this is one of those few animals that can outlive a person for several years.
The average life span of a turtle is about 100 years. There are cases when turtles lived up to 300 years. But at home, of course, everything is different. Water turtles can live up to 40 years with good care.
