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When you're starting to think about your setup for your land turtle or
tortoise, it's important to think about the size of the animal. A lot of
these turtle species that are in the pet trade start out quite small as
hatchlings, but can get very large.
In the beginning, a tank, such as your standard glass fish tank, can be
appropriate for the smaller size turtle, but as they get bigger, you may
have to upgrade into a large plastic storage bin, or some type of custom
made enclosure out of wood, or even consider moving them to the outdoors.
So again, the next thing to think about is what to line the tank with. We
call this substrate. This can be rock, sand, dirt, bark chips, moss,
various things. Again, you want to find something that the turtle is not
going to eat, and that you can keep clean and dry.
There are various types of cage accessories. You can find many types of
logs, branches. You can even plant live plants in the enclosure. A water
dish is important. A lot of people don't realize this, especially when they
have desert species. I hear this all the time in my practice; people say,
"I've never seen my turtle drink water, so I just figured he didn't need
it." You can't possibly predict what a turtle might need as far as water
source, so it's always good to have a bowl of water in there that is clean
and changed on a daily basis.
The other thing, of course, that's very important with your turtle is
enclosure set up, is providing a basking area, because turtles are
ectotherms. That means that they rely on the temperature of their
environment to regulate their own body temperature. They need to be able to
move within the enclosure, and either heat themselves up, or cool
themselves off, to maintain their ideal core body temperature.
The most common ways that people heat an enclosure and provide a basking
area would be with incandescent light bulbs. There are also under tank
heating pads. We never recommend using a heat source where the turtle would
actually come in direct contact with it. They can actually get burned.
The other thing that all turtles need, would be some source of ultra violet
light, when you're housing a turtle indoors. There are bulbs that you can
buy that will give the turtle exposure to ultra violet light. Without this
light, they cannot synthesize vitamin D. and they end up with different
types of metabolic diseases involving calcium metabolism.
The other thing, of course, that's very important for properly taking care
of any type of land turtle would be providing it with an adequate diet. The
diet requirements are going to be based on the species of the turtle, and
you need to research that and try and provide a varied and appropriate diet
for your turtle.