Turtles

[rmncwrtr]

Does anyone know anything about having a turtle as a pet? Good idea/bad idea? That's what my nephew asked me to get him for Christmas and on the surface seems low-maintenance pet, but I need to know more before I approach my sister for the okay. They live on a 37 acre farm in the Willamette Valley and have 2 dogs, 3 cats and a bunch of chickens. Thanks!

[rob]

How old is he? My nephew has a turtle, it seems pretty low commitment.

[rmncwrtr]

He is 6. The youngest of four.

 

I gave them all a Chocolate Lab Puppy last year so this seems like a no-brainer, but it's still a living creature so I just want to make sure.

[sobo]

We had a turtle once... for years...

 

Little red-eared slider (type that was popular while Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ran) that we rescued from the middle of a four-lane urban arterial here. It had been run over. I thought it was a goner. My wife forced me to divert to a vet (I forget where we were actually going) for an emergency operation and, $400 and an hour and a half later, he had super-glued the little thing back together.

 

Over the next several years, she (yes, it was determined that she was a she) grew and grew (and I replaced aquarium after aquarium) until she was the diameter of a large dinner plate and I had one of those black polyethylene backyard ponds sitting in the corner of my living room.

 

When the first kid arrived, I thought she a goner again because of the risk of the baby picking up salmonella and all that. But nooooooooo, we ended up putting up a chicken wire screen around the pond in my living room. Kid still managed to get past the screen and play in the water. But he lived.

 

When we finally moved from Yakima to Kennewick, my wife decided it was "time for Marty to go be with her own kind." But there was no way my wife was going to just "dump" her at a golf course or park pond or anything like that (you must understand, my wife is the reincarnation of St. Francis of Assissi, and I mean that in the kindest way - 8 rabbits, a one-eyed cat, and a geriatric dog, each one a sob story in the acquisition). So I ended up spending about $200 to FedEx her to a "turtle rescue sanctuary" somewhere in the Florida panhandle. She now resides on the banks of some warm pond in 300 acres of her natural habitat, has a few boyfriends (or so I'm told), and I get to send $150 a year to the operators of this place as a "donation" for her continued upkeep.

 

So Mel, you want to saddle your sister with a turtle for the next several years, eh? Who's gonna clean the aquarium every week? As it grows, the filtration system won't keep up - turtle shit is the worst, man. Where ya gonna put it when it outgrows the aquarium? In a pond in the living room? You do know it can't stay outside in the Willamette... it's too cold there in the winter. They're native to the Southeast, not the PNW. Not putting the kibosh on it, but just putting some things out there to consider... Remember, I been there, done that.

 

But when it was all said and done, it *was* kinda cool to have a huge turtle living in your living room. We'd let her out of the pond every few days (if she didn't escape first, which she managed on several occasions) to wander around the house for a few hours. She seemed to really like it. The only pain about that was when she got stuck in the fireplace. All those ashes...

 

The cat thought she was a h00t. The bunnies regarded her rather suspiciously. The dog hadn't arrived yet...

[lizard_brain]

Tastes like chicken.

[sobo]

Yeah, I thought of that. And hassenfeffer, too.

 

Never could make myself get excited for kitty fritters or puppy chops...

[selkirk]

 

You might think about a tortoise. Just think dry turtle so none of the aquarium filtration issues. I have a buddy who has one named Tortellini, I think he just feeds it half a head of lettuce every few days and let it wander around the house/backyard (he lives in San Francisco so it's a bit warmer in the winter.)

[Jim]

Turtles and tortises can live a long time. As an ecologist I'm not crazy for these critters as pets, but I think the tortise thing is likely a bit easy to care for. Check out some animal rescue groups. People often get these and then tire of them. See below.

 

http://www.pnhs.net/index.php?page=foradoption

[lizard_brain]

My understanding is that's how these guys got to be living in Greenlake. They're not a natural species here, they were dumped by pet owners that wanted to get rid of them. Now they're part of the system at the lake.

 

[sobo]

Jim makes a good point, Mel. Check out the rescue groups. That's where all of our pets come from, except the ones we pick up crawling across the middle of four-lane urban arterials...

 

And regarding the lettuce: "iceberg" lettuce is virtually nutritionless, for both you and your herbivore/omnivore pets. It's basically water trapped in a plant matrix. Better to get "leaf lettuce", like green leaf, red leaf, endive, escarole, etc. Much more nutrition in those types.

[G-spotter]

One of my coworkers just made her pet turtle into our new office mascot. She's had it for 15 years. I expect when I retire, 30 years from now, the same turtle will still be in the office.

[rmncwrtr]

Okay, thanks guys. So glad I asked. I obviously need to do more research about this.

[lizard_brain]

And I understand they do live a LONG time. Decades.

[sobo]

Eee-yup.

[G-spotter]

these ones have a short life span:

[rmncwrtr]

Now that's my kind of turtle, G-spotter

 

I went to the rescue website. This was the description for one of them:

 

These tortoise need LOTS of hay, LOTS of space, LOTS of heat and can do LOTS of damage to landscaping, back muscles, and marriages.

 

There was one tortoise there that could maybe work, but I need to really have a talk with my sister. I don't want to disappoint my nephew, but I'm seeing some big red flags here.

 

What about those tiny turtles that you keep in an aquarium? Anybody know about them?

[matt_warfield]

I think they live a long time too. Most likely they will outlive the interest of a youngster, leaving somebody else holding the bag, er shell.

 

It's too bad that a long life span is seen as a negative, but it sure can be when kids are involved.

Edited November 16, 2007 by matt_warfield

[archenemy]

I've had both land turtles and aquatic turtles as pets (as well as a huge variety of other reptiles). I found them easy to care for, but then, I just let them have their run of the house and yard.

Remember that you can catch salmonella from turtles, so if the kid isn't good about washing his hands, you might run into trouble there.

 

Oh, and the aquatic turtles are a lot more care-intesive. I would not recommend them as a pet for anyone who is not an adult enthusiast.

[jon]

Tim's wife has turtles and Tim has turtleheads.

[sobo]

...Remember that you can catch salmonella from turtles, so if the kid isn't good about washing his hands, you might run into trouble there.

 

Oh, and the aquatic turtles are a lot more care-intesive. I would not recommend them as a pet for anyone who is not an adult enthusiast.

Mel,

Archie makes the same points that I did upthread ^^ about care-intensiveness and salmonella with regards to the rugrats.

 

What about those tiny turtles that you keep in an aquarium? Anybody know about them?

The "tiny turtle" to which you refer is the Red-eared Slider, which is the same species of turtle that features so prominently in my diatribe above. If you feed it, it won't stay tiny for long.

 

The big red flags you're seeing is your sister's tortured and angered face for you doing this to her. Unless she's the type to just dump it when the going gets too tough...

[fenderfour]

If you wouldnt' get the child a puppy, certainly don't get them a turtle. They are way less fun.

[archenemy]

But they taste better in soup.

[rmncwrtr]

I did give the child a puppy last year, Fenderfour. A gorgeous AKC chocolate lab they named Hershey.

 

So it looks like turtles will be a topic of discussion during Thanksgiving dinner. Not sure what outcome I want right now.

[rmncwrtr]

Well, I just got off the phone with my sister. The turtle, actually a tortoise, is a go. She just wants to know what she has to do ahead of time. She asked if I could get a hardier breed. I told her they live for thirty years or more. There was this moment of silence on the phone, then an "Oh, okay then."

[sobo]

Han Solo: "I don't know... I've got a baaaaad feeling about this..."