Miniature Turtles
Your Guide to Miniature Turtles
Miniature turtles are great low maintenance and first time pets. After the initial set-up, they only require daily feedings and cleaning. For these reasons, they make a great pet for our busy lifestyles.
Here are the details.
Turtle Tank Specifications
A 40-gallon tank makes for an ideal habitat for miniature turtles. This will give your turtles enough room for their full range of activities. Miniature turtles are natural swimmers so you will need to fill 2/3 of the tank with water. You should have a rock surface they can easily access on the remainder of the tank.
You should clean your tank every day. For this purpose, you will want to wipe the feces off the ground and buy a net to fish out the floaters from the water. This is by far the least pleasant part of keeping turtles but it is necessary if you want to keep them happy and healthy. If you want to avoid this unpleasant task, you can buy a filtration system that will do it for you. A filtration system is the easiest solution for most people and is not that expensive.
Once a month you will want to remove the turtles from their tank and give the tank a good cleaning.
Miniature Turtle Heating
You should also buy UV lamps made especially for turtles. You will need both a day lamp and a night lamp. The day lamp will light up the tank as if it were daytime. During the day, you should keep the temperature at about 80 degrees. This UV lamp will also help them to metabolize vitamins just as we do. Health reasons make a UV lamp a must since these lamps mimic the sun; just imagine the deficiencies you would have if you stayed at home without ever seeing the light of day.
The night lamp should be one of those purple lamps that will make it relatively dark in the tank while still keeping it at about ten degrees less than in the daytime.
Mini-Turtle Diet
Miniature turtles require a mix of vegetable and protein. The easiest way to give them this is by giving them the usual garden mix your supermarket offers along with a bit of dog food and two or three mealworms. Miniature turtles can eat a variety of vegetables but you’re mostly looking to give them greens. Some people will even just feed their turtles regular lettuce. It is probably a good idea to give them a bit of more variety in the greens department.
Miniature turtles need a daily dose of protein. Many people just use mealworms for this, but if you really want to keep your turtle happy, you should also vary or combine worms with cooked fish or poultry (no bones). Another great treat for mini-turtles is boiled eggs.
Some people claim you need a separate tank just to feed your turtles in so that you don’t leave the remains of rotting food in the tank with them. You do need to clean their food every day to keep things like rotting worms from becoming sources of disease, but the whole idea of an extra tank is wholly unnecessary. Not only is it an unnecessary expense, but by continuously taking out your turtles to feed them you are likely not only to expose them to ill health through the daily handling but also make it more difficult for them to get the amount of food that they need, since they will be stressed by being in a strange environment. Better to leave their food in during the morning and pull it either at lunchtime or before you leave for the day.
If you follow these guidelines, you are sure to have happy, healthy miniature turtles.