A Detailed Guide to Keeping and Caring for the Golden Coin Turtle at Home

We all know that the golden coin turtle costs much more than an ordinary turtle, so not many people raise golden coin turtles commercially. However, the golden coin turtle has high ornamental value, and keeping one at home can add great visual appeal.

Keeping a golden coin turtle at home

Once you bring the turtle home, you need to prepare its enclosure. Because the turtle we are talking about here needs to eat and excrete in water, it must have water. The water depth is generally 2—4 times the height of the turtle, and it also needs a piece of “dry land” for basking. The land area can be made from stones, sunken wood, and so on. If using stones, try to remove the sharp edges so they do not scratch the turtle's shell. If your glass tank is not big enough to hold too many things, then skip the “dry land” and just add water to the tank. The water level should not submerge your turtle; about a little more than half of its shell height is fine, so it can raise its head to breathe. If you add too much water, the turtle may drown.  

Water: It is best to let tap water settle for a few days before use. Using tap water directly is not recommended.  

Keeping the temperature above 20 degrees is fine. Be careful that the temperature difference is not too large when changing the water.  

For food, it is best to feed fresh fish and freshwater shrimp (the latter will make your beloved turtle's colors brighter). If these are not available, feeding fresh beef, pork, or mutton is also fine, but note that a single type of food will lead to malnutrition. Let them bask in the sun often, otherwise they are prone to illnesses such as calcium deficiency.  

Key points for keeping turtles  

The terrarium should ideally be placed indoors. If it is placed in direct sunlight, the water temperature in the tank will rise, which can cause the turtle's death.  

The ideal water temperature should be kept at 25 degrees C. If the water temperature reaches 30 degrees, they will be very lively. If you notice they are not in good condition, you can use a 100-candlepower light bulb to raise the water temperature slightly, but do not exceed 35 degrees. The water should be changed once a week.  

Turtles like to bask in the sun because turtles are also cold-blooded animals, and their body temperature rises and falls with the temperature, so they use sunlight to regulate their body temperature. If their body temperature gets too high, they dive into the water. In addition, basking in the sun also helps turtles produce vitamins in their bodies, which helps keep their shells hard and healthy. Sunbathing should last 30 minutes to 1 hour.  

If a turtle's shell becomes soft, or the skin around its eyes turns red and swollen, it means they are sick. This is usually caused by malnutrition, so feed them a little baby vitamin liquid or medication every day, or use human eye drops to apply drops to their eyes.  

As winter approaches, turtles stop eating. At this time you should prepare a place for them to overwinter. Put about 30 cm of water in the tank, then add soil and a large amount of fallen leaves. However, if the water temperature is kept at around 25 degrees, the turtle does not need to hibernate, and you must feed them on time.  

Food for raising turtles  

In ponds or rivers, turtles feed on small shrimp, crabs, insects, aquatic plants, and so on. Therefore, when keeping them, you can give them a little lean meat, small goldfish, loach, breadworms, earthworms, and the meat and liver of freshwater fish. Do not feed cooked food or fatty meat. You can feed some turtle-specific feed, but it is best to feed live food such as earthworms.  

If your turtle is very small, you must pay great attention during winter. Turtles that are too small should not be allowed to hibernate; you need to maintain the water temperature and indoor temperature. Larger turtles can be allowed to hibernate.

What turtles eat to grow fast  

First you need to understand what species your turtle is. According to differences in their living environment, they can be divided into five types: land turtles, aquatic turtles, semi-aquatic turtles, sea turtles, and bottom-dwelling turtles. What they eat is different. You need to understand this.  

Aquatic turtles are generally omnivorous. Most semi-aquatic turtles are carnivorous. Land turtles are mostly herbivorous.  

Commonly kept turtles are omnivorous animals, feeding on animal matter such as insects, worms, small fish, shrimp, snails, and mussels, as well as plant matter such as tender leaves, duckweed, melon rind, wheat grains, rice grains, and weed seeds.  

To make your turtle grow fast, you still need to feed it a varied diet regularly. Combine animal foods such as small fish and small shrimp with some plant foods such as tender vegetable leaves, and so on, so that the nutrition is comprehensive and rich, and then the turtle can grow faster.

Many people like to keep golden coin turtles at home, because golden coin turtles not only have a good symbolic meaning, but also have high ornamental value. Therefore, as far as our country is concerned, golden coin turtle farming is still not very common and still has great development potential.