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Reptiles - Turtles and Terrapins Housing

All terrapins, turtles or sliders need a warm, dry area and a large pool of warm water. You will need to provide a warm enclosure with both heated water and a warm place for your turtle to climb out and bask. The water must be kept scrupulously clean; bits of food mixed with faeces will combine to make an unhealthy habitat and quickly cause health problems with your wet pet. Turtles are very messy eaters and naturally defecate in their water, so keeping the water clean will be a new part of your daily routine of keeping terrapins, turtles or sliders.

Start with at least a 90 litre glass aquarium. You can use cleaned aquarium quality rock and gravel to build a slope up from the water end to the dry land end or you can silicone together pieces of plexi or glass to make a land cube platform which your turtle can crawl onto to bask or rest. Floating or anchored cork bark is an alternative.

If you are not interested in being able to watch your turtle swimming around under water, you can use a large opaque plastic container such as a large plastic storage box bottom or similar. The water should be at least twice your turtle's total carapace length in depth, with at least the carapace length of air space between the surfaces of the water to the top edge of the aquarium to prevent escapees. The tank length needs to be a minimum of 4 times the carapace length, and the width should be a minimum of 2 times the carapace length. So, for a turtle who is 10cm carapace length, your enclosure water area must be an absolute minimum of 20cm deep, 40cm in length, and 20cm in width though we would suggest 30cm by 60cm by 30cm is more suitable. If you are going to have a land area at one end, this means you will need something much larger than a 50litre tank. Bear in mind that if your turtle is probably not yet full grown! Unless it is the size of a dinner plate? You need to provide room in the tank for him as he is now and to allow for future growth. A full grown yellow bellied or red eared will need an enclosure around 50cm deep, a metre long and 50mm minimum!

To keep the water habitable between your weekly water changes you will need a powerful water filtering system. This is necessary to keep the water free of poop! If you have such a powerful filter system and you are prepared to feed your turtle out of the home tank, you may be able to get away with replacing 25% to 50% of the water each week for two or three weeks. You still need to be emptying and thoroughly cleaning out the tank every month.

You will need some type of power siphon for the water changes. Discuss with your aquarium shop about the following types of filters that are suitable for your yellow bellied or red eared; canister, under gravel, sponge, and power filters. Remember to replace the warm water with warm water. The water temperature must be maintained between 75 F and 86 F.

If you buy a submersible pre-calibrated heater. We suggest that you test it first to make sure the water is kept at the proper temperature before you put your terrapin, turtle or slider in the water, too hot and you will gently cook it - too cold and it won't eat and slowly starve to death!

You will also need to buy an aquarium thermometer and monitor the water temperature regularly. If the room the turtle is being kept has an ambient air temperature that is always over 75 F, and then you will only need to heat the basking area. Using an normal incandescent light or spot light, test the area and only allow the area closest to the light to reach a maximum of 85 to 88 F. Make sure there is no way for the hot light bulb to come in contact with the baskee or fall into the water. Be aware also that the light will heat up the water to a certain degree so be sure to monitor the water temperature. Young and any sick terrapins, turtles or sliders, should be kept slightly warmer, with a water temperatures between 82 F and 85 F. If the room is not warm enough to provide the turtle with the proper air temperature, then you will need to boost the heat. Provide another source of heat which may be used day and night in addition to the basking light. On really sunny days when the outside temperatures are warm, your wet pet will benefit from some sunshine. You can either move your tank outside, or set up something like a kid's paddling pool with swimming and basking areas.

Exposure to full-spectrum lighting is recommended by some turtle experts. Full-spectrum light is part of the calcium metabolization process. Do not use bulbs with higher wattage than your light fixture is rated for as with tropical fish, there is a danger of electrical shock. The danger is to both you and turtle, so when using electric filters, lamps and water heaters in and around water, ensure all electrical cords are connected through a plug-in RCD (ground-fault interrupter) which shuts off the current if anything untoward happens. These are available from DIY shops.

Your wet pet will investigate its environment and knock things about. Make sure you secure your water heater behind an immovable wall, rock or partition, in fact vandal-proof it!

These tasty bites are for large turtles, and made completely out of fish and crabs.

JBL Energil contains dried whole fish and crabs. It is specially made with natural nutrients for large turtles. JBL Energil offers a welcoming alternative to the normal meal plan for all turtles and will even be desired by the pickiest of eaters. The food has a nice presentation and the cutting of the prey will provide healthy movement. Young, or still growing turtles should eat 2-3 times a day, as if they only have a few minutes. Grown animals 4-5 feeding periods per week should be enough.

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