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Should you take your turtle out of the tank once in a while to walk around the room or is it best to keep them in their familiar surroundings?

I let my turtle roam around. Especially when it's nice out, out in my back yard. I keep a close eye on her but she wanders all over the yard getting excercise and roaming through the dirt and leaves. I just gently rinse her off if she has dirty feet or dirt on her shell so she's not bringing that back into her tank. She LOVES it though. She invesitages my whole yard and likes to bask.

Thanks for the replay. Do you let her roam around your house during the winter? We let Rocky out for a few minutes this evening and he seemed unsure so we placed him back in the tank.

My turtles are small and sometimes they go for mountain climbing adventures on my lap and belly and arms.

I only let him out if it's warm in the house. The floors can get pretty cold in the winter. But yes, I let him roam around if the temp. is ok. I mostly do it when I'm cleaning his tank.

I let Sheba wander around my house since she enjoys it so much. Keep in mind that she is a large, 9" long mature RES that I have had for 21 yrs. so she is not afraid of people and tends to follow me around. Also I don't have any dogs/cats, and I always make sure to close the door to the basement so she can't fall down the stairs. She has full run of the main floor of my house and I have a little hideout in the bathroom that she likes to crawl into (it's a plush cat toy shaped like a big red shoe) when I stop paying attention to her.

Larger RES's tend to enjoy walking around a bit and they are generally larger/stronger so that helps to locate them & keep an eye on them. One thing to watch out for: make sure to keep your floors clean so they can't accidentally "eat" something that isn't good for them on the floor.

Also, I have to keep my toes covered by wearing socks, or else she might try to eat them.

lol sniper turtle! enemy toes located, permission to fire. permission granted fire in three, two, one, BUMRUSH!!!! omnomnomnomnomnomnom. mission accomplished XD

HI, I'm new to the forum, but have had my little girl for about 3 and a half years, she was about an inch and a half when I bought her from an evil woman in China Town selling her for food. Since I have been very cuddly with her since then she just goes nuts when I pet her and let her run around. I keep her in the same room as her tank which is just the family room. She runs fast and then wanders and watches the t.v. She looves baseball. When the game is over, her attention just changes and that's that. In the summer I put her in my fish pond with a net over the fish so she can swim, but I can always just pull up the net and get her. Watch for poo, I never had an accident until a few months ago, I left her out too long and she went on the floor. A quick carpet spot remover was fine, but I laughed because she is always just more comfortable pooping in her house. Her favorite part is playing with my cat. The two are best girlfriends. Loley (my cat) eats Squirt's food, and she sleeps next to her tank and they nap together. When Squirt is running around they play. Totally not afraid of each other, it's hilarious.

Cane and Ty are to young to walk around yet. However, Sadie is 8 inches so when we clean her tank, she gets to wander all over the house. And she knows the floor plan very, very well. She even still goes to where her old 40 gallon used to be and looks for it, not because it was a good house but because it belonged to her for so many years with her previous owner. If I am at the house alone, I will shut my mother's bedroom door because it's hard to get Sadie out from under the bed, and, whenever I do this Sadie will scratch at the door and try to push it open! She loves to run around outside in the grass, too.

We don't watch Sadie as closely as other turtle parents because our cat, Spike, follows her everywhere. So, we don't have to find her, we just have to find him. She is about half his size, he's a tiny cat, so, he's not aggressive with her, and, she's not even remotely afraid of him. He just has a strange fascination with her, but can't be near the smaller turtles because he tries to swat at them. Another cat of ours, Jenny, is probably the gentlest soul on the planet and I would trust her around any small animal, even mice. Clementine on the other hand... She tends to hiss and growl at Sadie, and tries to be aggressive towards her, so, Sadie will in turn charge at her and chase her around the kitchen. I love the way a huge cat like Clementine can get owned by a turtle in a matter of moments. It's great fun

Edit: I once showed Typhoon to Jenny, and in response, Jenny head rubbed Typhoon and purred like she was accepting Typhoon as family. It was adorable. Gentlest soul, I tell ya.

We let Bowser run around on towels since we have carpet and my mom would freak out if we let her on the carpet.
But one day, when my boyfriend and I have our own place, we shall let Bowser roam wherever she wants.

Yesterday, we had some towels along the stand of her tank and she tried crawling under the stand.
Joe (my boyfriend) had to pull her out from under there and she dug her claws into the ground like "NOOOO!! DON'T EAT MEEEE!!!"
Silly girl.

I like to hold her in a towel since her claws are pretty sharp now, so the other day I was holding her against my chest while she was in a towel....she stuck her arms out and dug those claws right through my shirt and into my chest.
Ouch!!



(It's funny, because I'm wearing a turtleneck in that photo!)

Ashley- My mother wraps Sadie in a towel too. We rent and we didn't pay for the carpet so we don't care if she wanders around. Sadie has some mighty big nails and usually scratches me when I pick her up. This is the same turtle that sits calmly in my mother's lap and chills out like nobody's business.

I just had to reply to this post. I was browsing the topics bc im a newbie. I got Seri 3 days ago and she took quite well to me. letting me rub her neck like a dog. I've been worried about her habits in the tank etc. But anyway I took her out the tank and just set her on a towel with a space heater bc Im always thinking its too cold. When I read some1 say theirs bites toes I decided to get on the floor with her to see how she'd react. I left the room for 1 second (she was still hiding in the shell) to get a pillow and I heard some sound. I come back and she's made a bee line somewhere. Well luckily she's in the smaller bedroom/office where I could find her. But I thought that was funny. So I guess she likes to walk around...

Kodi gets to roam around a bit after i feed her, she seems to like it alot. I usually lay some towels down for her and leave a towel in a bit of a clump in case she wants to burrow herself into it. I only do it if it's warm in the house though and I am constantly with her so she doesn't get into anything or anywhere where she could get hurt.

Hello,
This is my first post!
I just got my turtles today as a present from my boyfriend. They are about the size of a half dollar coin (3 of them!) and are red ear sliders. We know that they are under a year old and I was just wondering how early should I start socializing with them so they become comfortable with me and will just hang out?

All these stories have been fun to read! Just makes me that much more impatient to get a ! Thanks everyone.