Turtles have gained a lot of popularity as pets throughout North America. People are intrigued by turtles for many reasons. They’re interesting to watch, they’re different from traditional pets, and some people may think that they are less work and require a smaller timer commitment than dogs and cats. Before buying a turtle, make sure you are interested in them for the right reasons.
Like any pet, turtles can prove to be more time-consuming and expensive than expected since they have specific requirements that are very different from cats and dogs. In order to keep turtles healthy and provide them with everything they would get in the wild, there is a lot of equipment and supplies that will be necessary. The major cost of a turtle is not in it itself but in setting up its environment.
Before purchasing a turtle, you need to figure out just how big the turtle is going to get. Pet Turtles can grow almost a foot in just a few years. This is one of the main reasons that turtles are given up to animal shelters or worse, released into the wild. Releasing a non-native species into the environment can have a devastating impact on the local ecosystem. They could die in the foreign environment, or they could out-compete native species for resources, resulting in a population decline of the native species. So before you pick up that tiny baby turtle, realise that one day with the right care it will require a very large aquarium.
If you are buying an aquatic turtle, they will still require land that is big and solid enough for them to haul themselves onto. Turtles need to come out of the water to dry out and regulate their body temperature. So not only does the aquarium need to be large enough for the turtles to swim around, but it should also provide a large enough space out of water for the turtle to dry off and sun bathe.
Turtles can be great pets, and very entertaining to watch, just make sure you are purchasing them because you want to own a turtle, not because you are trying to avoid the responsibilities of pet ownership.
