General Care Discussion :: decision

[turtledlucas]

turtledlucas - One major concern about a "baby" turtle is that they often come to you ill, and you can end up spending a lot of money on vet bills, and the baby may still die. Turtles come from terrible turtle farms, and babies are much more likely to die from nothing you may actually do. The best thing is to get an adult turtle, one that is over 4". Another benefit to an adult is that you can choose the gender, as opposed to taking a chance with a baby. If you tell us the general area you are located in, we may know of somewhere to look for an adult.

A full turtle setup will cost you almost $1000, so you need to be ready for that. Once you have everything, maintenance is cheap and easy. But you will have a costly initial investment. And turtles live a long time, 25+ years, so you are looking at a life-long pet.

I really don't see how its going to cost me 1.000 dollars. I have about 200-300.
give me a list of youre cost and how you think it will come out to 1000.

1. cage 55 gallon on c-list= 100-120 obo
2. heater comes with cage.
3. filter comes with cage but if not 50- 100
4. uab light 20 bucks or i could get one for free maybe
5. etc other little things such as rocks cage design turtle food. 20-30
p.s im making my own basking dock so i will keep the expenses low on that

[theartbook35]

Hey, you want a turtle, and that's your final decision, no stopping you, then by all means, get one.

However, I'm gonna tell you straight up that turtles are EXPENSIVE. They don't need huge tank adjustments and upgrades very often, like, at the most annually, but those adjustments/upgrades are never cheap. Especially if you wanna go all out and make a zoo in your tank. (Some people, like me, actually do this). Unless you look in the cheapest places, I guarantee you will spend between 500 to 1,000 dollars on your turtle by the time they reach adulthood, and maybe even more.

Turtles should have the following things (At least, I think they should):

1. Basking ramp. It can be a floating piece of cork bark, a floating log, one of those commercial ramps that suction cups to a wall, or the turtle tank topper.
2. Water heater, heat bulb, UV bulb. Don't get Repti-sun bulbs that are 10.0, since they cause eye problems. 5.0 is much better.
3. Plants. They can live without them, but turtles love to have artificial plants to hide within.
4. No substrate, unless it is fine grain sand. Turtles are known to eat gravel and suffer severe internal injuries because of it.
5. Flat river rocks. You don't have to buy these, you can pull them out of a river bed and soak them in bleach, then soak them in water until they no longer smell like bleach.

If you want your turtle to be very social and comfortable with being handle by you, and your dad, I suggest getting one between two and four inches. There are strict laws throughout the United States about keeping turtles under four inches, so, check out where you live and what you can and cannot do. I had two inch turtles (they were stolen from me. I'm working on getting my girls back) and I was going to start using them for educational purposes at the school I work in. (Just know that little kids can't hold little turtles. Besides everyone's salmonella paranoia, little kids are rough boogers). You can properly socialize a turtle larger than four inches, but it requires a great deal of patience and takes a very long time, as well as a crapload of knowledge about reptiles. (Something that I don't have, so, don't ask me for details)

Just get one turtle, okay? RES don't get along well when they live together. RES are very strong, and when they get older they can really kick the crap out of each other. They act differently to tank changes when they live together, too. If I change something and my girls don't like it, they abuse it, or they nip at each other a few times.

I would really like to know why such expensive, and at times aggressive animals became popular pets. It's the same way with those spotted cat breeds, like Savannas and Egyptian Maus. I have a Mau and he is a nasty em-effer when he wants to be.

I buy supplies usually from this website: http://www.petdiscounters.com

I like that site a lot, but read the product descriptions very carefully. Their turtle supplies section is the largest, as far as I can tell. Their plants are lovely, their ramps are cool, and they have some great bulbs and lamps. Cheap too.

when you say you suggest getting one between two or four inches that means getting a baby right. if you mean get a baby i dont no where i can get babys. the adoption center in my town is complicated and mostly adopts tortoises

The place where I got my babies was an inappropriate place to buy a turtle. Don't buy a turtle from a flea market, they aren't always taken care of correctly and you could end up with a sick turtle. Yeah, sick turtles can be nursed back to health, but it isn't easy, and in my opinion not worth the prospect of losing them no matter what.

Anyways, yes, under four inches would make them a hatchling, or yearling if their growth has been slowed down. You would have to get a young turtle from a local, lesser known pet store, or a breeder that is willing to sell them that young.

Getting a tortoise might be fun for you, honestly. Tortoises are very mellow and sweet. Great for educational stuff too, if that's your kind of thing.

As far as the expenses are concerned, 1,000 dollars is what you will end up spending throughout the turtle's whole life span. RES get big, very big, and definitely need a big 100 gallon plus tank or pond. Tanks even at the cheapest of places, will still cost you one to a few hundred dollars. If you don't go cheap, the bigger tanks cost up to 500 dollars. Bulbs don't last forever, about every six months to a year, and those range between 15 and 30 dollars. Then there's the lamps you'll need, the turtle ramps or above tank basking areas, plants, filtration system, and so on. As your turtle grows you have to get bigger ramps and filters, and that's going to cost you up to a hundred dollars each time you upgrade. Hey, I made the choice to stick it out, and do everything I possibly can for my little girls, and I thank my lucky stars that I've always had the money to do so.