by Dinesh Seemakurty

Created on: June 13, 2009   Last Updated: June 14, 2009

A small turtle is merely an illusion. These cute little reptiles seem like they are the perfect pet for an owner since they are so small and seem like they need little time and effort. These initial intuitions are quickly destroyed as the owner starts the research about these tiny creatures that will unexpectedly grow into a twelve inch animal with a necessity of at minimum 120 gallons of water.

The small lagoons and other fun enclosures which are frequently advertised with the turtle at the store are merely excuses for a home and cannot be a baby turtles home for more a month. Caring for the turtle continues to get more difficult as time builds on due to the involved care required. Baby turtles need to be hand fed to make sure they are eating properly and a correct assortment of live and processed food is necessary for their nutritious needs.

Live food consists of live animals such as fish or crickets which need separate care before they are consumed and other live food like vegetables need to be constantly replaced as they rot quickly. In addition to the dietary concerns to which the owner must pay attention to, the owner must also invest a good amount of time and money for the actual enclosure for the turtle. As stated before, the lagoons provided with certain turtles are futile in their attempt to care for a turtle. Very quickly, a turtle will grow in size, reaching up to 3 inches in their first year.

According to experienced turtle owners, at least 10 gallons of water is necessary per inch of turtle. This results in going from a lagoon in the turtles first month to having at minimum a 30 gallon aquarium at the end of one year. This rapid progression of increasing aquarium sizes leads to a common issue for an owner. The original plan of the owner, to spend at max thirty dollars on buying and caring for the turtle, is completely crushed and the price of owning a turtle has risen from 30$ to over 150$ when properly buying all the required equipment. This crescendo of money doesn't stop there.

As the owner upgrades each aquarium, he/she is forced into purchasing new equipment such as lights, filters, and heaters to be able to sustain not only the aquarium size, but the immense waste load provided by the turtle. Although this continuous upgrade pattern can be avoided by purchasing a large aquarium from the start, the money spent will still be much higher than expected. In addition to all the money spent in caring for the turtles, time is another investment that needs to be accounted for.

Each week the turtles enclosure should be properly cleaned; this consists of dumping 50-75% of the water in the aquarium out and refilling it with clean fresh water. Alongside the cleaning of the enclosure, the turtle should be taken outside into the sun to ensure proper health and shell growth. These processes seem like a small amount of time now, but as the aquarium size and the turtle size grows, these simple tasks become heavy chores.

Although all these concerns about caring for a turtle might be intimidating, having a pet turtle, like any other pet, is a warm and special connection which is worth the time and effort. Seeing the turtles swim towards you as they see you approach the aquarium and having a bit of true nature in your household is a precious experience. Overall, turtles make great pets, but require a lot more care and attention than initially believed.

Learn more about this author, Dinesh Seemakurty.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.