Habitat - Indoor :: Letting them roam around the house???

[KYLA]

It really depends on what we are doing but usually they are out around an hour a day when we get home from work, sometimes longer if we are just sitting watching tv or something. But if im not in the same room as them the whole time they are out i'll put the gate up that way I know they are together and in the same area. But if its something like doing a complete clean of the tank than they are usually out longer...usually never more than 2 hours though or if it takes longer i'll fill up their kiddy pool and they can play in that....they seem happy with the routine they have now so I guess as long as I stay with that then they should be ok...but yes I always keep track and a very very watchful eye on them

[Jane]

I always wash my hands after handling my turtlle because of
salmonella...(did I spell that right?) so if you let your turtles roam around, my advice to you would be not to eat things off the floor anymore! (I always eat off the floor )

[lydia_lady_fla]

LOL

[turteywordy]

I thought my little ones enjoyed walking around inside too. When I really started watching and obseving them carefully I realized different. They would usually urine and look for a dark and safe corner after roaming for a while. Outside in the yard in a protected setup was a good thing though and there behavior would reflect that. RES are far more sensative than we give them credit for. .............(food for thaught ).

[Oldturtle72]

I,very frankly, am so tired of hearing that turtles get 'stressed out'. It is NOT in a aquatic turtles entire being to become 'stressed out'! The word STRESS in relating to a turtle is a human idea only and has no bearing on how a given circumstance relates to a turtle. Wild or captive bred, makes no difference--if you treat a turtle with indifference and let its habitat go to hell, that turtle will go on living until it dies. If you treat a turtle with all the love and attention you are capable of giving, that turtle will go on living till it dies. A turtle is a victim of its surroundings and if you try to better the surroundings, good for you. A turtle that you keep, you will feed it or not, the turtle will become hungry if you don't but it will not become 'stressed out because you didn't. Because it is in a small enclosure, it will struggle against the sides of that enclosure looking for a way out to go looking for some food, not because it's 'stressed'. You put that same hungry turtle in a lake and its first action will be to escape, and THEN to find food. You can't 'stress a turtle because it has no capacitly in its entire makeup to feel 'stress'. I know that some of you will disagree with me to the point of commiting mayhem on my poor body but it won't 'stress' me in the least and I, as a human being, can become 'stressed'. Gee Whiz, you guys! Only you can understand and know 'stress'. A turtle is too damn dumb. George

[Oldturtle72]

As for letting your turtle out to roam around, if YOU like the idea of
YOUR turtle walking around then by all means, let it walk around. In real life, your turtle could care less. I make a wonderful walk-around area around my ponds and make easy access to that area so that if a turtle is so inclined it can climb out and walk around. Now, does that make my turtles happy? In all the years that I've had that setup, I saw one turt come out and walk around the fence to the other side of the pond. As soon as he got to the other side, he dove back in the water. I don't think so but it makes me happy to think that they might like it. There is absolutely, not one instance of a turtles spine breaking when its only support is on the front and back edges of its shell. Therefore, when you tell me that my 4'' turtle will come to harm when it is exercising in my Hamster Ball, I would really like to know where you got that idea or that information. I would be, if you really know how a aquatic turtles body and skeleton are designed, hard put to injure the turtle in that way in the Ball. It also can't bump against anything with its body or accidently flip over or get into any trouble except to come to a dead stop against an object. Sometime, if that happens, it will just sit there and go to sleep. If it feels like it, it will crawl around in the Ball and continue its merry way. It never gets 'stressed, because, in the first place, it wouldn't know how. It just does whatever it wants and its only guiding factor is instinct and that is all. George

[lydia_lady_fla]

wish I was a turtle hey I dont like s-t-r-e-s-s

[flutterby]

Oldturtle I think you make valid points. I think introducing them to new things, such as being outside the tank, is personal for each individual turtle. Some might get irritated being outside, then again some might love it. Each turtle is different. What works for one might not work for another. Its all trial and error.

[turteywordy]

Posted: Thu Jun 09, 2005 8:28 pm Post subject: Indoor

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
IN RESPONSE TO OLDTURTLE72
I,very frankly, am so tired of hearing that turtles get 'stressed out'. It is NOT in a aquatic turtles entire being to become 'stressed out'! The word STRESS in relating to a turtle is a human idea only and has no bearing on how a given circumstance relates to a turtle. Wild or captive bred, makes no difference--if you treat a turtle with indifference and let its habitat go to hell, that turtle will go on living until it dies. If you treat a turtle with all the love and attention you are capable of giving, that turtle will go on living till it dies. A turtle is a victim of its surroundings and if you try to better the surroundings, good for you. A turtle that you keep, you will feed it or not, the turtle will become hungry if you don't but it will not become 'stressed out because you didn't. Because it is in a small enclosure, it will struggle against the sides of that enclosure looking for a way out to go looking for some food, not because it's 'stressed'. You put that same hungry turtle in a lake and its first action will be to escape, and THEN to find food. You can't 'stress a turtle because it has no capacitly in its entire makeup to feel 'stress'. I know that some of you will disagree with me to the point of commiting mayhem on my poor body but it won't 'stress' me in the least and I, as a human being, can become 'stressed'. Gee Whiz, you guys! Only you can understand and know 'stress'. A turtle is too damn dumb. George
----------------------------------------------------- WOW OLDTURTLE72 , ARE YOU STRESSED?!! I couldn't help but to notice your reaction and defensiveness to the word. As a english speaking human we cannot help but to use words that we can relate to and therefore project a thought or expression. As we do not know the native RED EAR SLIDER LANGUAGE, we may need to use our imagination in reflection to the word STRESS and how it possibly could apply to a turtle. That word can be related to such words as, irratated, bothered, frightened or startled. To be quite frank your idea of "Stress and Turtles" sounds about as ignorant as the thought that slaves having or not being entitled to feelings of unfair treatment or abuse. Just as slavery has been abolished, animals can get STRESSED (for lack of a better native RES word). I do know for a fact that when I stopped handling my RES a certain way,............. can you beleive it..... she stopped urinating on me. Imagine that. GO FIGURE ............(?projection?oldturtle72?)

[Pi]

WOW OLDTURTLE72 , ARE YOU STRESSED?!! I couldn't help but to notice your reaction and defensiveness to the word. As a english speaking human we cannot help but to use words that we can relate to and therefore project a thought or expression. As we do not know the native RED EAR SLIDER LANGUAGE, we may need to use our imagination in reflection to the word STRESS and how it possibly could apply to a turtle. To be quite frank your analogy of "Stress and Turtles" sounds about as ignorant as the thought that slaves having or not being entitled to feelings of unfair treatment or abuse. Just as slavery has been abolished, animals can get STRESSED (for lack of a better native RES word). I do know for a fact that when I stopped handling my RES a certain way,............. can you beleive it..... she stopped urinating on me. Imagine that. GO FIGURE ............(?projection?oldturtle72?)

(^^^ if you want to quote someone, there is a button for it on the top left.)

I believe that what old turtle was saying is that people often personify turtles to extents that are unreasonable given their position in nature. I'm not sure what about his statement prompted your reaction, but your analogy of slavery is faulty. He didn't say that turtles don't have feelings/urges, he said they don't get stressed. I don't even agree (if you define stress as feelings of discomfort with environmental causes), but human slavery is considerably different from petstore turtles. If you plan to compare the two, I would like to hear the argument. Your turtle was urinating on you because you were handling her the wrong way? Where is the argument for stress specifically? The feeling that prompts urination in most animals is fear. It's a fight or flight response, the body releases excess weight. So your turtle was probably afraid, but that is different from stress.

By the way, none of what oldturt said was an "analogy." An analogy is a comparison, and he stated an analysis.

For the record, I don't disagree with the term stress. I believe that an uncomfortable situation will cause a turtle distress. This could be obvious like the pain that may result from being stunted, but, no, stress doesn't cause them to have a heart attack or develop a caffeine addiction.

I do think most stressing is done by the turtle owners, who spend so much time worrying about their little guys

---

What I was going to say about the topic...

Sometimes I let my bigger turt roam around, because she seems to enjoy it. The smaller one seems very scared when I move him out, so I don't usually take him out unless I need to for a tank cleaning. The bigger turt though, she sometimes begs to be outside. She begs for food by opening her mouth and hanging out by the place where she's fed, and begs to be outside by trying to climb up the tank walls. It's funny, and not something I expected, as the first time I took her out is was just to clean.

The first time my cat was in the room with the turtle, I had just set the turtle down. She slinked over to where the turtle was, and when the turtle popped her head out, the cat jumped about a foot in the air and ran over to the other side of the room and hid behind a throw pillow. This cat backs our German Shepard down the hall!

Pi

[jezzell]

i don't know about stress, but i've had my turtle scared to the point of sucking up in her shell completely twice-once was her first time in the playground grass, second was when a bird attacked her in our back yard yesterday. she pees all the time, but i don't think that has anything to do with her fear or stress given her response to the situations she doesn't like. by the way-what would make both-a res and a box-keep going to the same spot in my living room-it's by the air vent. i pull them away and they just go right back-same path too=). have a good day!

[marisa]

Is it a place they can hide? If they feel vulnerable out in the open, they'll often look for a place like that. I also think they get oriented to going in one direction/to one spot. I've put my RES facing in the opposite direction from where he's going and after pausing to look around, he's turned and headed in the direction he was initially going in. Some species have a particularly good sense of direction, especially box turtles, who in the wild have their own defined territory.

[jezzell]

that's pretty neat=) no, it's just along the wall, you could see them well, after they got over there they turned around and came back, it was pretty funny=). i think, maybe they could smell the dog and were curious-the people who lived here before us had a dog and that particular spot is one that would be dificult to reach with a carpet cleaner. i don't know if turtles use the sense of smell much though lol=)

[marisa]

They actually do have a keen sense of smell.

[STRAYKINGFISHER]

My nephews built this maze for their turtles, I thought it was a pretty good idea so that they don't crawl under the sofas and get lost, I thought you people might like the idea so here it is: