Habitat - Outdoor :: Can you Bring a RES into a pool

[RunninWideOpen]

oops....HA. there was a whole nother page of posts I didn't see. Desregard my ignorance.

[DavidY]

Eh, that wasn't an ignorant comment at all. You brought out a very valid point for anyone else who reads this thread and is thinking of doing something similar. They're all good things to consider before making that kind of decision.

[kneenuh]

when I lived with my dad I let my turtle swim in his 12 foot deep pool. She LOVED it. I can't even tell you how much she loved it. She used to swim so fast in that pool, and didn't care if I went swimming with her. In fact I used to just put her in there while I did dishes or something, and if she saw my shadow walk by the back door she would dive down deep.

The trouble with having a 12 foot deep pool is that when it was time to get her out, I'd have to jump in and swim to the bottom to get her most of the time.

The chlorine is not good for them and I would not recommend more than 20 minutes in the pool.....but they sure do love the leg room.

[industrial_girl_2000]

Wow, this thread got long quick! Today is the first day I saw the postings.

I swam with Sheba once in a pool but I won't do it again because I know the chlorine chemicals are not good for her (not good for humans either, but we are a little more resilient in that regard!). Why did I do it? Well, many of you know how long I have had Sheba in my life....I consider her to be part of the family. She has been with me since highschool when I was living at home, moved with me into my first apartment away from home, moved with me again when I got married, and moved with me when I got my divorce. She has a lot of personality in/out of the tank, follows me when I take her out, and listens to my voice when I call her. In this way, she is very much like the dog/cat I never had (and never could have due to allergies). I swear the only thing she doesn't do for me is fetch my slippers...!

So when I wanted to swim with her just once in a pool, I wanted to understand what it was like to meet Sheba on HER turf since she was always on my turf ("in captivity"). We have 17 yrs of memories together. I consider Sheba to be a trusted friend & cherish every moment with her.

[zero_tails]

*crying* soo beautiful

[turtle_nz]

seems like a silly idea.

why did you ask here anyway? the people who have the experiance say its a bad idea (marisa has 6428 posts she's been around a while) and your still going to do it anyway...

[SpotsMama]

Hey turtle_nz, there's a post from the original poster on the previous page where he said he wanted to let everyone know that, after hearing all the comments, he decided not to go for a swim in the pool with his turtle after all. You probably didn't see that. It's understandable since this is a really really long post. I just want to be sure you know that the poster did take all the advice to heart.

[turtle_nz]

Oh, sorry guys , your exactly right SpotsMama i didn't read the whole thing, and thought i'd got to the end! hehe

[DavidY]

No problem. You're not the first one to respond that way.

[thebernreuter]

I'd be worried on all that stress that would be put on the turtle. Think about it, you take the turtle out of its tank where its spent all of its life in - and then place it in a huge pool with deep water, the turtle has no clue where the hell its at, and on top of that..theres a giant swimming in their with him! Doesn't sound fun for your turtle,

If you think about turtles in the wild and the fact that they deal with changes of scenery all the time and live around bears and alligators, a domestic swimming pool is pretty tame.

Things to consider:

- If the pool is not clorinated, it is probably treated with low levels of salt instead. Not nearly as much as the amount in sea water, but turtles are sensitive to water quality, so I would research the salt concentration a bit. My turtle was able to tolerate two teaspoons of salt per gallon while I was treating my fish for ich.

- There might not be enough places for your turtle to surface in a swimming pool.

- Yes, I read all three pages, and decided to put in my two cents anyway.

[DavidY]

Hmmm, from a psychological viewpoint, I beg to differ (here I go again ). Turtles in captivity, in my opinion, are more sensitive to stressful conditions than a wild turtle for a lot of different reasons. I'll list just a couple...

1) Health - Wild turtles get a much more natural and varied diet than captives do. They also get more exercise, fresh air/water and sunlight.

2) "Street smarts" - Wild turtles know the ways of the great outdoors. They know that they can escape a threat. Captives only know that there is no escape from a threat in their confined cages. They will get caught and picked up. I would imagine they would be more likely to panic outdoors.

3) Stress - Wild turtles are relatively stress free, able to live by their instincts successfully and relatively undisturbed. Captive turtles live by our grace alone, unable to fully exercise their own instincts. If we can provide them with a safe comfortable and healthy place to live, they can adjust and be happy. But I think that because of so much dependance on us, they would be more stressed in an unfamiliar environment (like a large swimming pool with people splashing around). But just like people, I'm sure some turtles are more resilient than others.

He he, I'm no turtle shrink (although I pretend to be one sometimes ) but these are just my thoughts on the matter. I liken it to a similar situation with a human. If you took a baby human and raised them in a very sheltered and enclosed environment, they would be relatively happy if provided with their basic needs and desires. But if you suddenly introduced that person to the real world, they'd probably go into shock.

So back to the swimming pool thing...I know a lot of people use Baquicil (sp?) instead of chlorine nowadays. Is that actually a salt solution? That's an interesting thought, because I believe the RES can adapt to brackish water conditions.

[thebernreuter]

From a psychological standpoint, it is debatable that turtles actually have the capacity to experience emotions. That's not an insult to turtles, it's just a characteristic of reptiles. Do their emotions range beyond fear/ no fear? There is really no way to know.

Many things turtles "know" are actually instinctual. All life is capable of learning in the strictest sense, but to conjecture that a turtle is capable of reasoning that a human in the water is more of a threat than a human on land is making a pretty big leap with no scientific knowledge to back it up.

My turtle is afraid of me. He probably always will be. The setting doesn't matter so far. I know this only because every time I get near him he tucks into his shell and sometimes he hisses. He hasn't yet learned that I = food or I = no danger, so asking anything more of him cognitively is probably a stretch. However, I still try to take the best care I can of my turtle. I'm certainly not going to release him into the wild just because he's afraid of me.

We can sit here and talk about this a priori all day long, but there's only one way to know for sure, and that is buy observation. Ask some people who have swam with their turtles. Did the turtles appear relaxed, or did they try to flee? You can't talk to the turtles obviously; all you can really know for sure is whatever you pick up by watch their behavior.

Lastly, there are individual differences in turtles. Apparently some warm up to their caretakers, so there is no real reason to assume that they would not "enjoy" swimming with them, i.e., not be provoked into a fear reaction.

[DavidY]

Point taken.

[industrial_girl_2000]

Ask some people who have swam with their turtles. Did the turtles appear relaxed, or did they try to flee? You can't talk to the turtles obviously; all you can really know for sure is whatever you pick up by watch their behavior.

When I swam with Sheba, she was very relaxed....never tried to flee. Igot in, put her in the pool with me & she sank to the bottom (literally *sank*). After a minute, she swam straight up to the surface & looked at me for a few a minute, then sank again. She stayed near me for at least 1/2 the time we were in the pool (we were only in the pool for 15-20 min. total). She was not afraid of me at all & just hung out in a very relaxed way. The only thing I was afraid of is that she would come & bite my toe underwater! LOL

[jenaero]

I think we've got all the bases covered here.