How do you raise a Chinese pond turtle to become a black turtle? Detailed care guide

For turtle keeping enthusiasts, raising a black turtle with an entirely jet-black body is very rare, and the question of how to raise a Chinese pond turtle into a black turtle also puzzles many beginner turtle keepers, so let's listen to the editor of Tuliu.com explain it in detail.

How do you raise a Chinese pond turtle into a black turtle?

First, select a large male Chinese pond turtle with a dark color, then provide plenty of nutrition and a sufficiently large growing environment. After more than 5 years of normal development, there is a very high chance it will become a black turtle. However, a Chinese pond turtle turning into a black turtle is mainly caused by hormones within the body, and it cannot be 100 percent guaranteed that it will turn black.

In addition, when a male Chinese pond turtle begins to change color, it starts with the eyes, then the patterns on the neck area gradually fade and turn black, and finally the shell turns black (generally the carapace turns black first, and the plastron turns black later).

What do black turtles eat?

Black turtles like to eat various kinds of animal-based feed, fish, shrimp, loach, pork and so on, and are easy to keep. It is said that they sometimes also eat plant-based feed, depending on the individual turtle.

Black turtles generally begin hibernation at the end of November of that year and do not finish until April of the following year. For a turtle that has just woken from hibernation, do not feed it immediately; wait a few days and then feed it according to the situation.