Detailed Explanation of New Turtle Farming Techniques: Practical Methods and Key Points

Turtle meat is extremely delicious and highly favored by consumers, with demand at home and abroad exceeding supply. To preserve the turtle's distinctive flavor and high economic value, you can raise field snails (river snails) and earthworms together with turtles in the same pond, since they breed quickly and their seed stock is easy to obtain. The basic key points of this method are as follows:

In the rearing pond, generally spread a 30 cm thick layer of mud on the pond bottom, grow some algae, duckweed and similar plants on the water surface, and plant water hyacinth around the pond edges, to provide food and shade for the turtles and field snails.

The water color should preferably be light green with a transparency of more than 30 cm. If transparency is low, change the water promptly. The inlet and outlet of the rearing pond should be built lower than those of conventional fish ponds to make water changes easier. At the inlet and outlet, wire mesh or plastic mesh must be used as a barrier to prevent the turtles and snails from escaping.

Field snails have strong reproductive capacity; generally one field snail produces an average of 120-150 young snails per year, and the offspring of 10 field snails can provide free food for one turtle. In each square meter of pond, when stocking 5 adult turtles, it is best to stock field snails at fewer than 20 per square meter. Of course, some other feed still needs to be supplemented, and raising earthworms is a good way to supplement feed.

Earthworms can be raised in boxes, barrels, basins, trays, shallow pits, and ground pile beds. Stock 4000 breeder earthworms per square meter, and add feed once every 15-20 days. The feed is decomposed cow, pig, and chicken manure, crop straw, tree leaves, weeds, and an appropriate amount of rotten flowers and fruit, banana peels, fruit peels, tree leaves, and so on. In four to six months, earthworms multiply to 10 times their own number, so 4000 can increase to 40000. Ten thousand adult earthworms can eat 4 kg of feed per day, and raising one square meter of earthworms can supply the feed for 5 turtles in one square meter of pond.