Turtles make the best pets because they are quite easy to care for, adorable, have unique habits, and require too much attention. You can also choose from a variety of turtle species so you can customize it to your liking. But in making turtles as pets, you need to make sure their environment is good enough.
In this blog, we will give you tips on designing the best environment for turtles based on the information gathered from ReptileClass.com.
Initial Preparation for Keeping a Turtle
Making turtles your daily pet has many advantages. But you might need a high initial cost at the beginning. Sometimes turtles need special care once in a while, and you need to remember that turtles should not be handled often. Also, you need to remember that turtles are long-lived animals.
For those who want to live a long life with a pet, turtles are a great choice but may not be suitable for those without a commitment to long-term care. Turtles are simple reptiles; it is quite easy to care for a turtle and you can choose from a variety of species.
Since there are many different species, you need to choose what kind of turtle to keep. You need to remember that turtles and tortoises are different animals although they have many similarities. As for how to care for them, there can be slight differences between the two. Turtles spend a lot of their time in aquatic environments in contrast to tortoises which tend to live in land environments.
About Aquarium or Turtle Tank
A turtle’s living environment can be either outdoors or indoors. Turtles need a large enough living space and should be designed like their native habitat. If you are keeping a land turtle, it can be kept in an aquarium or captive enclosure. While for turtles, you can use an aquarium and have water available for them to swim and play around.
For a 20 cm turtle, you need to prepare an environmental area of approximately 90 cm square using a terrarium. The size of the area is enough for the turtle to roam around, explore the area, or even dig it up.
If you choose a young turtle as a pet, then try to find out how big they will get when they grow up. What’s the point of this? So that you no longer have to prepare a new aquarium when your pet turtle grows up. Some species can climb the tank and then eventually escape.
In anticipation of this, try to install a mesh cover so that your turtle does not escape outside the tank. Also, make sure that each side of the tank is tall enough and perpendicular so that the turtle cannot easily climb on it.
Create a Native Habitat for Turtles
When setting up an environment for turtles, you need to make it look like their native habitat. With this approach, they can live happier, more comfortably, and feel safe because their surroundings look familiar. If your pet turtle is happy enough, then of course its health can be maintained better.
So, is it difficult to design a native habitat for turtles? You don’t need to worry because it’s quite easy, you can follow these few steps:
– Prepare the substrate
What is a substrate? This is a material commonly used to line the bottom of a tank/aquarium. Using substrate can hold the moisture level, and turtles can also make burrows with the presence of substrate. As we know, one of the turtle activities is digging holes.
The materials used to make the substrate can be peat moss, gravel, bark, and so on. You can spread the substrate as a base approximately up to 5 to 8 cm thick. Do not use fertilizers or the like when preparing this substrate for the turtle environment.
– Install some turtle tank accessories
If you have installed the substrate, then next add some accessories that are commonly used for aquariums/terrariums/tanks. One of them is a place for turtles to take shelter, just make it simple. If you prepare a place like this, it can be useful for turtles to hide when they feel uncomfortable.
Hiding is also a common activity for turtles. If there is no special place, the turtle cannot hide. The materials you can use to make this place can be plastic, and wood. If you can be more creative like using a plant pot. Tilt the plant pot so that it can become a hiding place for turtles.
– Install a water pool
The last thing is to install a pool of water so that your turtle can soak in it. Some turtles especially tortoises live more on land, but some need water. They can easily drink water or take a dip to clean their shells.
Those are some of the things you should consider when creating an environment for turtles to make it home-friendly enough for them. Although you do not need to give full attention to turtles, it is very important to make the best environment.