Can Chinese pond turtles be kept dry? A detailed guide to the correct care method
Recently, grandparents have been selling Chinese pond turtles outside some schools. So, what exactly is a Chinese pond turtle? The Chinese pond turtle is commonly known as the turtle. Many students like to keep it as a pet, and this is also one of the great joys of childhood. However, after keeping one for a while, many students end up killing it. Why is that? What is the correct way to care for a Chinese pond turtle? Let me tell you slowly.
How to keep a Chinese pond turtle
1. Never use tap water to keep a turtle. If you must use tap water, leave the tap water in the sun for 2—3 days, or let the tap water settle and then use the upper layer of water to feed it. If you find that troublesome, you can buy mineral water for it (that is what I do now).
2. Turtle tank: the more it restores a natural state, the better. Buy a large tank so you do not have to change it all the time, and the turtles also feel free to move around. Make the tank walls a bit higher to prevent them from climbing out. There should be water and land. The best water depth is 3 times the thickness of the turtle shell. You can spread sand and rain flower stones on the bottom and plant a few water plants. Then keep a few small fish. Then make a land area. If the turtle tank you buy has stairs and land, that works. If it is an ordinary fish tank, just place a large stone there. Put it in a place where sunlight can reach. This is the simplest setup. If conditions allow, you can buy a UV lamp and place it 30 cm above the turtle tank to shine on it for 15—20 minutes every day. When the weather is cold and the temperature is low, buy a heating rod, and a temperature of 25 degrees is suitable.
3. Water quality: if you are diligent, it is best to change the water every day, and the sand should also be cleaned. If you are lazy, buy a filtration system. Even so, change the water once a week. Changing the water often is very important for turtles. Add a little salt to the newly changed water. It must not be too cold. Otherwise they will get many diseases.
4. Food: turtles are omnivorous animals, and when young they like to eat meat. You can feed them small fish, small shrimp, pork liver, bloodworms, cockroaches, and so on. Turtles generally eat in the water. After turtles get older, they like to eat vegetarian food. They will nibble on water plants. You can feed them some washed vegetables. If you cannot be bothered with all those messy things, just buy a box of turtle food and let them eat it slowly. High-quality turtle food is rich in calcium, protein, fiber, fat, vitamin A, B12, C, D3, and E. Nutritious food is definitely not very tasty. The turtles surely think so too. Feeding should be, because turtles do not have a very good digestive system. If the turtle is too small and you feed it too-large shrimp, you can help by cutting them into pieces. After they finish eating, scoop out the leftover food.
5. Sunbathing: when it is warm, you can put it in the sun for about 15 minutes. Note that it must not be exposed to strong sunlight! The sunlight at 9 or 10 in the morning and 3 or 4 in the afternoon is best. Regular sunbathing can supplement calcium and also kill bacteria in the crevices of its shell.
6. Safety: if you also keep cats, dogs, and so on at home, add wire mesh to the turtle tank. Many turtles die under the claws and teeth of cats and dogs. The turtle tank must be high enough that they cannot climb out. Note that even on the stone land in the tank, they still must not be able to climb out. If kept dry, note that you must give them a bath every day. Prevent them from dying of dryness. When they climb to high places, be careful not to let them fall. Especially friends who keep turtles on balconies, absolutely do not let them climb out and fall downstairs! It is very dangerous!
7. Hibernation: hibernation is very important for turtles. When the temperature is below about 12 degrees, they begin to hibernate. In the north, it is roughly from the end of October to March of the following year. It is best for newborn turtles not to hibernate in their first year, and it is best for weak or sick turtles not to hibernate.
8. Not hibernating: young turtles, weak turtles, and turtles bought during the hibernation period should not be allowed to hibernate. Because they have not done the pre-hibernation work of clearing their intestines.
Can Chinese pond turtles be kept dry?
Chinese pond turtles cannot be kept dry. You also need to put in a little water. It is best to cover with stones and then add a layer of water, so they cannot soak in it, and if they are thirsty they can still drink some water. Moreover, the water depth for keeping turtles is generally just slightly higher than the turtle's back; there is no need for it to be too deep, and at most it should not exceed 2 times the height of the turtle's back. The stones provided can let the turtle climb up to bask its back.
Feeding and management of Chinese pond turtles
1. Hatchlings after emerging from the shell are very delicate and should be kept separately and managed carefully. Generally, a separate cement pool is built, with land occupying 1/3 of the pool and water occupying 2/3. At the same time, appropriately feed them fine feed such as cooked egg white, egg yolk, chopped fish, and shrimp. Generally, it is best for hatchlings of the year to overwinter separately from adult turtles. Most methods for overwintering hatchlings use a small wooden tray placed indoors, with 20~30 cm thick sand in the tray, placing the hatchlings into the sand, then sprinkling 0.5 cm thick fine sand over the hatchlings, covering the top with gauze, and spraying some warm water appropriately, so they can safely overwinter.
2. Adult turtles have a wide diet and can eat small fish, small shrimp, river snails, mussel meat, vegetables, insects, and so on. Generally, when the water temperature rises above 15℃, they begin to eat. June to September is the peak feeding period, and from November their food intake begins to decline. When the water temperature drops below 15℃, they enter hibernation. In spring and autumn, when the temperature is lower, feeding time should be placed at 8~9 in the morning. During midsummer, turtles are active in the morning and evening, and bait should be cast at 4~5 in the afternoon. Turtles swallow when eating in the water. The amount of bait swallowed by a turtle is about 4% of its body weight, fed every other day, and after feeding, leftover food should be cleaned up in time to prevent pollution from causing harm. Change the water frequently to keep the water fresh. The growth of turtles is related to the quality of feeding. Generally, if animal bait is often fed, they can gain about 50 grams per month.
3. Management of hatchlings: newly emerged hatchlings do not have strong disease resistance. To improve their disease resistance, they can be disinfected with 10% saline or 1 ppm potassium permanganate water. During disinfection, do not feed them. After 3 days, they can be fed cooked egg yolk and egg white, and they can also be fed some cooked livestock and poultry blood. After 7 days, move them into a temporary holding pool. The temporary holding pool is generally a rectangular cement pool of 5—10 square meters, of which the water surface occupies 2/3. Before stocking, it must be disinfected with 10% quicklime, and the stocking density is about 100 turtles per square meter. On the 4th day after stocking, begin feeding. The feeding platform can be a wooden board or bamboo raft floating on the water, and the feeding platform generally occupies about 1/10 of the total area. The feed fed generally needs to be fine, such as cooked poultry eggs and chopped fish and shrimp meat. When hatchlings of the year overwinter, they can be moved indoors. Place a wooden tray indoors, evenly sprinkle 0.5 cm thick fine sand on the back inside the tray, cover the sand with gauze, and spray some warm water appropriately so they can safely overwinter.
4. Breeding of adult turtles: the turtle pool is generally an earthen pond, with a water depth of 1~1.5 m, a pond bank slope of 1:3, water inlet and outlet openings in the pond, and some water hyacinth or water peanut placed for shade. Build a 0.5 m high wall around it, and leave a 1×1.5 m small island inside the wall, with sand placed on the island for turtles to lay eggs. If it is a cement pool, the pool depth is 1~1.5 m, the water depth is about 0.8 m, 20 cm of mud is placed, water inlet and outlet openings are set in the pool, and a 1×1.5 small island is left in the pool, with grass growing around the island and sand placed in the middle for turtles to rest and lay eggs. For both earthen ponds and cement pools, the stocking density should not be too large, generally about 10 turtles per square meter.
Precautions for keeping Chinese pond turtles
1. The main natural enemies of Chinese pond turtles are snakes, water rats, yellow weasels, wild cats, and so on. In summer, Chinese pond turtles are often active at night, and water rats and yellow weasels also come out at night. Although the Chinese pond turtle has a hard shell for protection, it can still easily be bitten and injured by enemies and die. In addition, when turtle eggs rot and deteriorate, they often attract large numbers of ants that endanger the eggs and hatchlings, which is very unfavorable for turtle keeping. Therefore, attention must be paid to eliminating these enemies so that the kept Chinese pond turtles can have a good ecological environment, which is beneficial to the reproduction and growth of Chinese pond turtles.
2. Chinese pond turtles are good swimmers. Many people think that as long as there is a stone or platform protruding above the water, the water can be very deep (a little deeper water indeed makes it more ornamental, and the water quality is not easy to deteriorate, and fish and turtles can be kept together, which I also like very much). However, if the water is relatively deep, the turtle will inevitably consume more physical strength to go to the water surface to breathe, which will cause excessive physical consumption for the turtle. For Chinese pond turtles with poor constitution, there is also the possibility of choking on water, drowning, and dying.
3. It is still ideal to leave a small area of shallow water just over the back. After all, Chinese pond turtles like water. When they are hatchlings, water just over the back is enough. For simple keeping, water exceeding the shell by 1CM is enough. If you want to keep them in deep water, you can consider building a “land island” in the water for the turtles to use, forming deep-water areas, shallow-water areas, sand areas, basking stones, and so on, so they can come up to rest, breathe, and dry their shells. This is the ideal maintenance environment for turtles.
So this is how turtles should be kept. After reading the methods above, have you learned them? The Chinese pond turtle is also a precious treasure in nature. Life is precious, and the Chinese pond turtle also has life. We must learn the correct feeding methods to avoid accidents. Do you understand?