General Care Discussion :: Pet Store Turtles

[Take-One]

Today I went to Petco and Elmer's pet stores. I took a good look at the turtles. Petcos were the calmest friendlest I have ever seen. They were just staring at me. Elmer's turtles were BITING at each other. They have a 30 gallon tank for 14 full grown turtles!

[SpotsMama]

I'm glad the Petco turtles seem happy. What about the setup? How many of them were there in how big a tank? Was the water clean? Was there enough water for them to swim and dive? Was there a good basking area for them where they can dry off completely - top and bottom? What about the lighting? Was there a water heater?

I think conditions for turtles in pet stores vary a whole lot - not according to what chain the pet store may be a member of, but according to how knowledgable and caring the people in the store are. We've heard horror stories about conditions in all the major chains, but we've also heard about individual stores that are doing a good job.

[joeybsmooth]

I saw this one place and it was all these little turtles in one thing. It was so sad. I wanted to take all of them, and find them homes . A fish blow each would have been better than what they where in at the place.

[Bascomb]

Taking care of that many turtles properly would take time and money. If they loose a few while making money on the whole bunch, ''so what''. If they don't know they should and if they do know thay don't care.

[blackforce247]

i bought my turtle at a small pet store called judy's pet store. when i looked in the tank i asked "do you have any turtles?". she said "look behind you on the lowest shelf". i look and i see about 6 inch turtles swimming in id say a 10 gallon tank and i saw about 15 in there. they wore all moving around besides the ones basking.they wore 20 dollars each. i told my dad look at the sizes but he was at a fish store buying fish with my mom. my dad pulled out his wallet and said "go buy 1". i went there i bought it for 20 dollars and you wouldn't believe what they did. they took 1 out and put it inside a box. i asked "does it come with food?"
the man working there said "no these are meant for cooking". i got really surprised and i said to myself " i just feel bad for the others this one is really lucky to be taken care of". so i left the store and i said i got it its inside. my mom was really surprised to see how big it was since she's only seen sea turtles when she was in the amazon in central America. my dad said "how much is the food?". i said "about 5 dollars". i bought some turtle sticks and went to my dads car. i gave him the change and when i got home i took it out showing it to my big bro. i said "look inside this box". he looked inside and said "is that fake?". i said 20 dollars isn't fake and he just sighed and walked away. i know i did the right thing and he just didn't care. the bad thing that scared me was she didn't eat for the first few days in my house. when i proposed the turtle sticks to the older female she would just walk away while the baby would chomp away on them. soon afterwards she started to eat and now she's walking around my house eating the vegetables in my fridge and happily roaming around. i still feel bad to this day about the other turtles in that tank swimming around. she must be lucky i bought her and for the other turtles i saw, i wish the best to them all

[VanishingReality]

I got mine at a pet store. The only really problems I see with him is retaining baby scuts, he is really shy and we aren't sure if he basks.

[Take-One]

I'm glad the Petco turtles seem happy. What about the setup? How many of them were there in how big a tank? Was the water clean? Was there enough water for them to swim and dive? Was there a good basking area for them where they can dry off completely - top and bottom? What about the lighting? Was there a water heater?

I think conditions for turtles in pet stores vary a whole lot - not according to what chain the pet store may be a member of, but according to how knowledgable and caring the people in the store are. We've heard horror stories about conditions in all the major chains, but we've also heard about individual stores that are doing a good job.

There wasnt a heater at ether. But we caught one basking at PETCO. I'd say about 5 turtles 5 inches 80 gallon tank at petco.

[imderanged]

I've accually never seen turtles for sale in a petstore cause I've lived in Jersey all my life and it's illegal to sell turtles at all here. My friend surprized me with my turtle. It was shipped next day from florida from a website that sells all kinds of turtles. It had RI when I got it. I can only imagine the conditions it lived in and what kind of container it was shipped in!
I did get my leopard gecko from the PETCO, and I can't speak for all PETCOs but this one is pretty good. They have to set up the enclosures the way the company tells them to, but they do their best, and this particular store has some really helpful, knowlegable staff.