How to properly care for a turtle. Red-eared turtles Pet land turtle

Land turtles are much easier to care for than aquatic reptiles. Therefore, they are more suitable for keeping at home. These are slow animals, cold-blooded and slow.

Of the 40 species of similar turtles, two of them are better suited for your home. The first is Central Asian or steppe. The animal grows up to 25 cm and lives, if well kept, for about 40 years. The reptile has a rounded shell, reddish or yellow-brown, and sometimes olive in color. Second - star turtle. The reptile's shell has yellow stripes that look like stars. Animals grow up to 30 cm. They can live up to 80 years. At home, land turtles need land, a body of water and good nutrition.

Conditions of detention

To place an animal in the house, the following accessories are needed:

• terrarium;
• priming;
• house;
• feeder;
• drinking bowl;
• UV lamp.

Most often, a glass aquarium is used as a terrarium. It can also be made of wood or plastic. In order for the turtle to be comfortable and comfortable, its size should be 3 or even 4 times larger size the animal itself. The terrarium should be installed on a stand at least 20 cm high from the floor, in a place where there are no drafts. Under no circumstances should a turtle live in a basin, jar, or bucket, even if it is small. The reptile should not be left unattended on the floor. She can hide in an inaccessible place and die of hunger or eat the wrong food and get sick.

Soil should be placed at the bottom of the terrarium. This could be a mixture of sand and clay, hay, or unscented sawdust. You can add smooth flat stones or pebbles to them, which should be larger than the pet’s head. The layer height is 3 cm. The soil should be updated every two weeks. Do not use sandy soil or litter for cats or dogs.

The terrarium should have a drinking bowl with fresh water and a feeder, which can be a saucer, a lid, or a small bowl. The food should be left out for two hours, and then the container should be cleaned. The turtle will really like it if there is a bathtub in its home. The animal must fit completely in it and independently climb in and out of its pool. It’s okay if your pet spends most of the day in it.

The animal must have a house, which is located in the terrarium itself. A turtle can hide in it from sun rays, hide from human eyes. It could even be an ordinary inverted pot or box. If only the reptile could climb there itself. IN summer time The turtle can be placed outside in a prepared enclosure. In cold winter, the pet must be kept indoors, as it cannot tolerate frost.

To support desired temperature, the terrarium should be equipped with an incandescent lamp. 60–100 W is quite enough. It should be placed at a height of 35 cm (preferably above the house). And to obtain vitamin D in the required volume, an ultraviolet lamp should be installed at a height of 40 cm directly above the animal.

Arrangement of the terrarium

Feeding your pet

An important component of caring for a land turtle at home is proper nutrition animal. From balanced diet depends on the lifespan of a reptile. The main food is greens. It should make up 80% of the total daily diet. The remaining 20% ​​comes from vegetables and fruits. Regular daily norm determined by the shell and makes up half of it.

The food should be finely chopped and at room temperature. No heat treatment is needed. You should not give monotonous food, as this leads to vitamin deficiency and deficiency of important microelements.

Turtles eat the following foods:

1. 1. Grass, plants. These can be lettuce, sorrel, dandelion, plantain, alfalfa, clover and sprouted oats.
2. 2. Vegetables. These include pumpkin, carrots, radishes, beets and legumes, zucchini (cucumbers and horseradish - rarely).
3. 3. Mushrooms. Boletus mushrooms, champignons and russula are suitable.
4. 4. Fruits. You can please the animal with apples, pears, and give some berries, bran and seaweed.

All ingredients should be finely chopped, in the form of salads. In this form, they are better digestible, and turtles readily eat them. A land turtle should be given food daily until it is two years old. And adult individuals receive food after 2–3 days.

The diet should be rich in vitamins and minerals. Specialized fertilizer "Reptilife" will help with this. It will not only strengthen the immune system, but also provide beneficial effect on the skin and shell, will improve the reproductive function of the pet. It is better to purchase fertilizer in powder and add it to food once a week according to the attached instructions. Sometimes you can put a piece of chalk in the house for these purposes.

To provide nutrition for a reptile living in an apartment, you can use commercially available food for land turtles, which contains the necessary minerals and vitamins. Animals eat them with pleasure. However, you cannot feed the turtle only it. Greens, vegetables and fruits are the basis of the diet.

Cleanliness is the key to health

This wisdom extends to keeping a pet reptile. The animal constantly digs holes in the ground and often gets dirty. She needs to be bathed periodically. The turtle absorbs water through its skin. Therefore, at the beginning of a reptile’s life at home, it is bathed every day for 7 days to saturate the animal with water. After that - once a week.

The container is filled with water to 2/3 of the height of the pet. The water temperature is maintained within 30 – 36 degrees Celsius. Indoors - at least 23 degrees. When bathing, add a chamomile solution to the water. Dirty water replaced periodically.

Wash your pet with a soft cloth or sponge. The neck and head are washed with a finger, carefully and gently, without additional effort. Once a week you can use soap for bathing, but only if the turtle is very dirty. Bathing time is 20–30 minutes. Then the reptile is taken out, wiped well with a dry cloth and placed in a previously prepared aquarium. You should not leave it on the floor to avoid colds.

The Central Asian tortoise (Latin: Testudo horsfieldii) or steppe tortoise is a small and popular domestic land tortoise. It's interesting that in English speaking countries they call her - Russian tortoise.

Small size allows you to contain Central Asian turtle even in the apartment, besides, she is quite active for such a leisurely animal. They also tolerate cold temperatures quite well, temperatures that would make tropical turtles sick or die.

They live long, are unpretentious, but like all living things, they require care and cannot be just a toy.

The steppe tortoise is named after the American biologist Thomas Walker Horsfield. As is clear from the name itself, the habitat of the Central Asian tortoise is in Central Asia, in the steppes from China to Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.

Prefers sandy soil, but is also found on loam. It mainly lives in rocky or hilly areas where there is water and, accordingly, grass in abundance.

They live in burrows that they dig themselves or that others inhabit.. Even though they live in dry areas, what they really need is an area that is humid enough for them to dig. If the ground is very dry and hard, Central Asian tortoises cannot dig at all.

Having a wide range and a large number of turtles in nature, it is listed in the Red Book as an endangered species, primarily due to catching for sale.

Description

The Central Asian tortoise is small in size and can grow about 15–25 cm. Males are smaller than females, about 13–20, while females are 15–23 cm. However, they rarely grow large and the size ranges from 12–18 cm. With a size of 15 -16 female can carry eggs. Newborn turtles are about 3 cm in length.

The color may vary from individual to individual, but usually the carapace ( top part shell) greenish or olive-brown with dark spots. The head and paws are brownish-yellow. These are the only turtles in the genus Testudo that have four, not three, toes on their feet.

Lifespan Mediterranean turtle more than 40 years. Keeping in captivity, with an abundance of high-quality food and the absence of stress, makes life expectancy longer than it is in nature.

The Central Asian turtle is one of the most common among all land species turtles, keeping them is quite easy, the main thing is proper care. Despite their small size, these turtles are very active and need space. It is also desirable that they have the opportunity to dig. If they have the ability to dig, they tolerate fairly large temperature changes and can be kept outside during the summer.

For example, they can easily tolerate night temperatures of 10 C. If there is such an opportunity, then during the warm season it is better to keep it in an enclosure, for example, in a country house or in the garden of a private house.

The enclosure for keeping should be spacious, 2*2 meters. The fence must be deepened into the ground by 30 cm, as turtles can dig through it and escape. Also, the height of the fence must be at least 30 cm. They most often dig in corners, so placing large stones there will make it much more difficult for them to escape.

They begin to dig more actively when the difference between day and night temperatures becomes significant, so they are saved from hypothermia. You can immediately prepare a hole for the turtle to hide in at night, which will significantly reduce its passion for digging. In the enclosure, place a container of water large enough for the turtle to swim in it, but also to get out without any problems.

Keeping the Central Asian turtle

How to care for a land turtle? Maintain at home during the cold months, or if it is not possible to maintain in the yard. But, it is advisable to take it outside in the sun in the summer. Just make sure the turtle doesn't eat it. poisonous plants, nor came into view as a victim of animals.

Some even keep it as a pet, allowing it to crawl around the house. However, this cannot be done! In addition to the fact that you can step on it or get stuck, there are drafts and dirt in the house, and the Central Asian tortoise is very afraid of them.

It is also important for the steppe tortoise to provide heating and UV lighting for at least 12 hours daily, but we will discuss this in more detail below.

As already mentioned, steppe tortoises love to dig. It is highly desirable that they have this opportunity in captivity. For example, you can make a layer of earth with coconut shavings (to soften) in the terrarium, or put a layer in one of the corners. Sand is not suitable, although it is believed that the opposite is true.

But, it is noticed that the turtle accidentally swallows it, and it clogs its insides and can even lead to death. The soil must be wet enough for her to dig and deep enough for her to burrow into it.

If she doesn’t have the opportunity to dig a hole, then she definitely needs to put up a shelter where she will hide. This could be half a pot, a box, etc. The main thing is that there are no sharp edges and you can turn around in it.

You need to place a container of water in the terrarium so that the turtle can climb into it and drink from it. To maintain water balance, the Central Asian turtle must be bathed weekly in a bath filled with warm water, approximately up to her neck. Babies are bathed more often.

Large, flat rocks help turtles wear down their claws and also serve as a surface for eating. Central Asian tortoises love to climb somewhere, so give them this opportunity.

Please note that they are quite territorial and can be aggressive towards other turtles.

Heating

To keep a Central Asian tortoise, you need the temperature in the terrarium to be 25-27C and a separate place, heated by a lamp, with a temperature of 30-33C. If she has a choice, she will move to where she is more comfortable during the day. The fact is that in nature, they live in a fairly hot climate, but when the temperatures are too high (or low), they climb into burrows where the temperature is stable.

Under the lamps:

For heating, a regular incandescent lamp is suitable, which gives off a lot of heat. However, it is important to adjust the height above the place so that the turtle does not get burned, this is approximately 20 cm, but not more than 30. Proper heating is very important for Central Asian turtles, and the length daylight hours with heating should be at least 12 hours.

In addition to warmth, the Central Asian tortoise needs an additional source of UV rays. For this, pet stores sell special lamps for reptiles (10% UVB), with an enhanced spectrum of UV rays.

Of course, in nature they receive the required amount naturally. But, at home, this is not possible, and it is very important to compensate for it! The fact is that without ultraviolet rays they do not produce vitamin D3 and the metabolism of calcium, necessary for shell growth, significantly deteriorates.

Water

Unfortunately, most people believe that turtles get all their moisture from the plants they eat. Yes, in nature they live in an arid climate, and remove water from the body very sparingly. But this does not mean at all that they do not drink. Moreover, they love to swim and for an adult Central Asian tortoise, you need to take a bath once a week. It is immersed in warm water, approximately up to the neck level, and allowed to thoroughly absorb the water for 15-30 minutes. At this time, they drink and absorb water through their skin.

In a terrarium with a turtle, you need to place a saucer with water, but you need to keep an eye on its cleanliness. Steppe turtles love to defecate in water when they get wet, and such water, if drunk, can lead to illness. Besides, they turn it over and pour it out. So it's easier to take weekly baths.

For small turtles and hatchlings, such baths should be more often, up to three times a week, since they dry out much faster than adults.

Details on how to bathe correctly land turtle(English, but clear and without translation):

What to feed the Central Asian turtle

Herbivores, and in captivity must be fed plant foods. Lettuce, various herbs - dandelions, clover, coltsfoot, plantain. Vegetables and fruits should be given much less, about 10%. It could be apples, bananas, berries. Where they live there are no particularly juicy fruits. The basis is plants containing a large amount of coarse fiber, rather dry.

There are also many commercial tortoise foods available that can be used to provide a variety of feeding options. Variety is the key to a healthy tortoise, and it is advisable to provide as many different foods as possible. In addition, commercial feed immediately comes with the addition of vitamins and calcium.

But what you can’t give is everything that people eat. Good owners give turtles bread, cottage cheese, fish, meat, cat and dog food. This cannot be done! By doing so you are only killing her.
Turtles are fed once a day, and adult turtles less often, once every two or three days.

Sex differences

Males differ from females in size; males are usually smaller. The male has a small concavity on the plastron (lower part of the shell), which serves him during mating. The female's tail is larger and thicker, and the cloaca is located closer to the base of the tail. In general, gender is quite difficult to determine.

Appeal

Unlike aquatic turtles, Central Asians are quite peaceful. But despite this, you should not pick them up often. If you constantly disturb them, they become stressed, and children can generally drop them or injure them. This stress leads to decreased activity and illness. Adult turtles are more stable and get used to it, but you need to know when to stop. You wouldn't be happy either if you were constantly disturbed. Let them live their own measured life.

Feeding pet turtles should not cause much difficulty for their owners. These animals are practically omnivores. When preparing a diet for your pet, you need to take into account what species it belongs to, because food for land and aquatic reptiles will be different.

Food - very important point in keeping any animals. IN wildlife turtles themselves choose food depending on the needs of the body and what they can find.

At home, a pet's diet depends entirely on its owner. The owner must develop a complete balanced diet for your pet, so that his body does not need any useful substances. Otherwise, the reptile may develop health problems.

Turtles are usually divided according to the type of food into three large groups:

Predatory. 70-90% of their diet is animal food, 10-35% is plant food. Predatory reptiles They eat mainly meat. This species also includes aquatic turtles, which mainly feed on fish and seafood.

Omnivores. Their food consists of 50% animal food and 50% plant food.

Herbivores. Their diet includes 95% plants and 5% animal foods.

Diet of aquatic turtles

are considered predators. In his natural environment they primarily feed on fish. At home, they should first of all be fed with low-fat fish, without cleaning it of small bones and entrails. It may be alive or defrosted.

Fish products. Young reptiles should be given fish with bones, chopped into small pieces. Adults - whole or big pieces. It is better to crush large bones or chop them very finely.

The following types of fish are suitable:

• perch;
• crucian carp;
• cod;
• whiting;

Sometimes the animal can be treated and oily fish. Suitable sprat, herring, capelin or sprat. Before feeding, it is kept for some time in a container with hot water. Turtles love caviar. From time to time you can pamper them with this expensive delicacy.

Seafood Be sure to include in your pet’s diet: shrimp, squid, mussels, octopus, raw scallop and frogs. But before throwing it into the aquarium, you need to keep in mind that not all species can be given to turtles. Therefore, you should first consult a veterinarian. A small part of the food of aquatic inhabitants should consist of crabs and the tail part of crayfish. They can be given once every seven days.

Meat products. In second place is lean meat. Boiled chicken, chicken or beef liver. Pets do not disdain small mammals either: domestic predators will happily hunt naked mice, rat pups and runners once a week.

Fatty meat - beef, pork and lamb - must be excluded. Minced meat, sausage, frankfurters, dog and cat food are not allowed.

The reptile diet additionally includes:

• dry food (sticks, granules, tablets, capsules, flakes, etc.);
• insects (bloodworms, grasshoppers, crickets, feed cockroaches, etc.);
• amphibians, mollusks and invertebrates (tadpoles, slugs, small snails with shells, etc.).

Plant food should be given to your domestic predator periodically. If the pet feels a lack of it, it will begin to consume algae from the aquarium. In this case, you can give the following plants:

• lettuce and dandelion leaves;
• cabbage;
• carrot;
• cucumber;
• beets;
• tomato;
• apple;
• pear;
• pumpkin pulp;
• parsley or dill (but not all turtles like them).

In winter, your pet needs multivitamins to prevent diseases.

Balanced diet for land turtles

composing a diet is a little more difficult than their aquatic counterparts. They mainly feed on plants. The food should be varied so that the pet, in addition to the gastronomic pleasures of food, receives other useful substances: vitamins, minerals.

80% of all feed should consist of greens: lettuce, edible leaves, flowers, herbs, succulents, parsley, dill. Reptiles especially love dandelion, both the greenery and the flower.

15% of diet- these are vegetables. Suitable cucumbers, pumpkin, carrots with tops, zucchini, Bell pepper etc.

The rest(about 5%) - unsweetened fruits, such as apples, apricots, nectarines, peaches. You can give seedless watermelon pulp and citrus fruits.

In small quantities, the food can include peeled orange and grapefruit, pineapples, cherries, basil, banana, mushrooms, pears, cabbage, green onions, peeled peas, sprouted beans, radishes, radishes, asparagus, beets, sorrel, spinach, garlic cloves, etc.

All these products are given only in raw form. They cannot be boiled or stewed.

Once a week the turtle needs to be given dry food - edible mushrooms(russula, boletus, champignons), seaweed, yeast, soybean meal and bran.

The animal must not be fed meat, milk and any fermented milk products, potatoes, cereals, corn, fish, dates, eggs, bread and any baked goods, cheese, citrus peels, cat and dog food.

The reptile needs to be given water periodically. But here everything is not so simple. Some pets drink once every 30 days, others once a week. It depends on the diet. If your pet's gastronomic preferences consist of large quantity juicy fruits and vegetables, then you need to water it less often than a turtle that eats a lot of dry food.

To improve the functioning of the digestive tract and for hygienic purposes, the animal needs to have baths once a week. Pour just a little water into the container and place the turtle there for half an hour. During this time, the pet will drink and bathe. Water should not flood the reptile's nostrils.

The diet of omnivorous turtles should consist of animal and plant food. They eat the same foods as their aquatic and land-based counterparts.

Exist general rules for feeding all turtles without species:

• young individuals are fed daily;
• older reptiles are given food 2 or 3 times every seven days;
• You can’t starve;
• It is strictly forbidden to give food intended for aquatic turtles to their land counterparts and vice versa.

Calcium should be present in your pet's diet; it should be given once a week, not more often. Carbonate, ground, is suitable as a top dressing. eggshell, bone meal, calcium palmitate, etc.

It is unacceptable to add calcium by eye. It is given at the rate of 100 mg of fertilizer per 1 kg of weight.

It is not difficult to prepare a complete diet for a turtle. She loves available products, many of which are in everyone's refrigerator. But this does not mean at all that you can give everything indiscriminately and in unlimited quantities. The main thing is that the food is suitable, varied and, of course, fresh.

Turtles are quite popular as pets. They are unpretentious, silent and peculiarly sweet. Mostly, people keep land turtles because they are easy to buy, caring for them is quite simple, and maintenance does not require exorbitant expenses.

Description and photo

Representatives specified type- medium-sized, born only three centimeters long, grow to a maximum of thirty. The shell is low, round, colored yellow, green, brown colors. The dull color is due to mimicry of the terrain. Colors vary depending on the specific subspecies. The forelimbs have four claws with which the animal digs the ground. The tail is pointed, the eyes are dark.

In nature, they live on plains, near rivers, and are distributed throughout Central Asia. They feed on herbs, sometimes fruits, berries or melons.

Central Asian turtles live up to fifty years, but how long your pet will stay with you depends on the conditions of detention (usually they say about thirty years, but such statistics are more likely due to the mistakes of the owners).

Did you know? In English-speaking countries, land/Central Asian tortoises are called Russian tortoises, although in reality only a small part of their habitat is in Russia.

Features of life in the wild

Land turtles live in steppes and forest-steppes, in fairly warm, often arid areas. They can go without water for a long time, but if there is a body of water they drink often. They dig quite long holes in the ground. When a source of danger is detected, the head and limbs are pulled under the shell. Due to the color corresponding to the area, they look like stone. They are not afraid of people.

They move at a speed of about twelve centimeters per minute; uneven rocky surfaces are dangerous for them; they can get stuck.

Did you know?During the mating season, males actively compete for females. They even fight, colliding and trying to turn their opponent over. It often happens that two people are so carried away by the fight that they do not notice the departure of their lady (sometimes, in the company of a third gentleman).

Rules for choosing when purchasing

The choice of a pet should be approached responsibly. Take the time to carefully check the breeder or store; at a minimum, look for reviews of land tortoises previously purchased there. No matter how you care for your pet, if it is initially sick, you will have to at least treat it at the veterinarian, and in the saddest case, mourn and bury it.

There are a few important factors things to consider when purchasing:

• Don't take a baby at all. It is more difficult to care for and has a higher risk of illness, so it is better to buy a teenager.
• Buy better in summer. Heat will reduce the risk of your pet catching a cold during transportation.
• Pay attention to the condition of the shell, skin, eyes. Unscrupulous breeders may sell sick animals. The turtle should not have cracks, signs of peeling, or deformation of the shell.
• Look into your mouth - the color of the inner surface should be light pink, the saliva should be clean (be sure to check for the absence of ulcers and abscesses).
• Listen - the breathing of a healthy reptile should not be heard; wheezing and whistling are a sign of respiratory tract disease.
• Pay attention to behavior. Pick it up - the normal reaction of the animal will be the movement of its paws, and when the hand approaches the eyes, the head will retract. An apathetic, practically unresponsive animal is most likely simply unhealthy.

Features of care

The animal is quite unpretentious, it does not need anything supernatural, although proper maintenance and care of Central Asian turtles still require some effort: equipping a terrarium, regular bathing, strict adherence to a plant-based diet and temperature conditions.

Choice and requirements for housing

A terrarium for a reptile needs to be quite large. The principle is “the more, the better.” The key characteristic is area. If, when choosing a height, it is enough that the pet cannot overcome it (about half a meter), then the optimal length starts from 120 centimeters, and the width from 60, and this is for one individual! If you start a couple, then, accordingly, the housing for them should be much larger.

It is important to consider the following requirements:

• Admission fresh air from above and from the sides.
• Temperature ranges from +25...+ 27 °C.
• In one of the corners there is a zone with +33° °C (the turtle will bask there). To do this, you need to install a lamp at a height of about twenty centimeters. Forty watts is enough, you don’t want to fry your pet.
• Be sure to have shelter. Since in nature they dig holes, the land turtle must be kept in appropriate conditions. It is difficult to make a hole in a terrarium, we replace it with something like a house (you can use an inverted box with a hole in the side), the main thing is that the turtle can enter it freely.
• Availability of a container with fresh water. Although many breeders believe that the turtle will get enough moisture from the greenery, a drinking bowl will not hurt - in natural conditions they drink when they find a source of water.

Soil and lamps for a terrarium or enclosure

Important! Do not use small pebbles and/or sand! The animal tends to eat it, which will lead to blockage of the gastrointestinal tract.

Optimal care for the Central Asian tortoise at home requires an additional device - an ultraviolet lamp. There are ten percent UVB specially designed for this purpose, which do not heat, but emit UV flux. It is necessary for the bones and shell of the turtle. Fix the device at a height of 25 centimeters, turn it on for six, maximum twelve hours a day.

We maintain hygiene

The reptile loves water. You need to bathe her once a week, warm water (temperature about +25 °C). Pour the liquid into a small container, to levels of five to seven centimeters, but not higher than the neck. While swimming, the turtle not only washes itself, but also drinks (except traditional way, it also absorbs moisture through the skin). The standard procedure time is up to half an hour; the turtle itself will ask to come out when it gets tired. It is a dangerous misconception to think that bathing is needed simply to wash away dust. In this way, the pet stabilizes the water-salt balance of the body, stimulates intestinal functions, which is very important for the health of the turtle.

Feeding rules

This animal needs to be fed infrequently - once a day is enough. Adults can feed once every two to three days. You should not give too much food; a portion on a plate with a diameter of half a shell is quite sufficient. It is not recommended to place food on the ground - use a feeder or feed by hand (be careful not to get bitten on your fingers; turtles are not allowed to eat meat).

Water balance

Some breeders believe that a reptile does not need a water bowl; it gets all the moisture it needs from food, citing as an argument the fact that the bowls in the aquarium are often upside down. However, more the right decision will provide the turtle with the opportunity to drink whenever it wants, because even in the wild they do it with pleasure. A shallow, heavy ceramic bowl that the animal cannot move will do. The water in the drinking bowl must be fresh and must be changed regularly.

What do Central Asian turtles eat?

Under natural conditions, they feed mainly on grasses, so in captivity the diet is as close to natural as possible. Two-thirds of the diet is greens (spinach, grass, salads are suitable), the rest is fruits and vegetables. In cold seasons, you can grow grass in pots or replace it with steamed hay.
The diet should be varied; you should not give a lot of sweet fruits, but too bitter or spicy vegetables It's generally best to avoid. It is important to ensure that the reptile’s body receives a sufficient amount of calcium and vitamins - special supplements can be purchased at a veterinary pharmacy.

It is impossible to feed the Central Asian tortoise the same as cats and dogs, just as you cannot give it human food. Even small doses of usually harmless bread, milk or boiled eggs can cause serious harm to your pet's digestion.

Features of hibernation at home

In nature, a turtle hibernates due to cold and lack of food. This should not happen in an apartment or house (if you are a responsible owner). Therefore, breeders do not have a common opinion regarding hibernation. There are those who believe that this is normal, and the main thing is to provide the pet with a comfortable temperature, others believe that hibernation should not be allowed. If you do not want the reptile to fall asleep (the main signs of readiness for hibernation are lethargy, refusal to eat), increase the temperature in the terrarium.

The turtle does not cause any particular trouble, but some nuances are still worth knowing. This animal is worth getting for aesthetic reasons - you won’t be able to play with it like a cat, and it is generally not recommended to pick it up. If you really want to, don’t do it abruptly and often. The animal can be stressed.
You should not let your turtle roam outside the terrarium. On the floor she can catch a cold, get injured or get an infection. Also, your pet should be protected from drafts - he is prone to colds. Detergents should not be added to bathing water. If the turtle is very dirty, wash it carefully with a sponge. After washing, dry with a soft towel or napkin.

Important!If you take it out onto the grass, be sure to fence it with an enclosure. At the same time, it must penetrate the ground at least ten centimeters - in terms of unnoticeable escape, the turtle has no equal, and it is also quite capable of digging a tunnel.

Separately about reproduction

It is quite possible to breed turtles in captivity. A pair is enough, although some experts recommend taking three individuals. Males are slightly smaller than females, although they reach sexual maturity faster (at five to six years), females are ready for the first mating at ten to twelve years. The mating season begins in February and ends in August. Pregnancy lasts two months, and a clutch usually contains two to six eggs. The maximum incubation period is 65 days at temperatures from +28° to +30°. Small turtles are fed a mixture of chopped vegetables and fruits, with the addition of vitamin and mineral supplements.
To summarize, we can say that the turtle is a rather interesting, although not a social pet. If you are prone to contemplation and do not like fuss and noise, it is ideal for you. The main thing is to follow all maintenance recommendations, because even reptiles need attention and care.