| Once you learn the basics of turtle care, keeping | | | | your turtle happy and healthy with the proper |
| turtles becomes relatively easy. One of the first | | | | growth rate. |
| things to know if you are new to turtle keeping is | | | | Now let's move on to the proper lighting required for |
| that you can't keep turtles in the small shallow glass | | | | your turtles. Turtles are cold blooded, meaning that |
| bowls like you saw in the movie Rocky. To ensure | | | | they cannot regulate their own body temperature. In |
| the proper health for your turtles you must provide | | | | the wild they use the sun to bask and raise their |
| them with adequate space to move around. One | | | | body heat. This is why you commonly see turtles |
| other important factor is you can't just put them in a | | | | sunbathing on a rock on a log. They also need to get |
| larger aquarium or container and leave them be. | | | | vitamin D to remain healthy in captivity. Again in the |
| Turtles need to be able to get completely out of the | | | | wild they get all they need from the sun in the form |
| water and dry off. | | | | of UVB rays. So you will need to provide your turtles |
| There are many other factor to properly care for | | | | with a heat lamp and a UVB full spectrum light |
| your turtles as well including UVB lighting, heating the | | | | source. It's your lucky day again because there are |
| water and basking spot, water filtration, and diet. I | | | | now a bunch of commercially available bulbs that |
| don't want to sound like it is incredibly hard to take | | | | accomplish both of these functions in one. |
| care of turtles and that you need to buy all of this | | | | One last thing for beginners is that turtles are a little |
| expensive stuff. I just want to make sure that you | | | | different type of pet than a dog. Most do not prefer |
| take is seriously enough to learn and implement the | | | | to be handled too much and they can get stressed |
| proper husbandry techniques to help your turtles | | | | pretty easily. This is why it is best to observe your |
| thrive. | | | | turtle eating, swimming, and sunbathing in the turtles |
| As far as diet goes, things like cat food, and hot | | | | habitat. Especially new turtles that you acquire, give |
| dogs just don't work well for your turtles. Diet can | | | | them some time to acclimate before you interact |
| also range between different species of turtles as | | | | with them too much. This will help to cut down on |
| well. It is important to research the type of diet | | | | the stress of it's new environment. Stress in turtles |
| required for the types of turtles you elect to keep. | | | | can lead to illness and it is best to not have to deal |
| Luckily for you, there are many commercially | | | | with this, especially for a beginner. |
| prepared turtle diets that are well formulated to keep | | | | |