In the great menagerie we call our home lives a cat, a dog, a turtle, and a dog - in that order. Out of them all the turtle, Winnie, requires the least amount of attention. She probably doesn’t get enough attention, actually, but so it goes. She’s a turtle. It’s funny that most people probably think it’s easier to care a turtle than two dogs and cat. Simplicity of often deceiving.
When we got Winnie a couple years ago, the men at the turtle store told us she was a water turtle and needed water to feed and stuff. OK, so we got an aquarium and filled it with water for her to swim around and a little floating dock for her to lay on. And that’s the way it remained for a long time, with regular tank cleanings and the likes to keep things as clean as we could. But let me tell you, a turtle is a dirty, dirty, messy animal.
Emptying 15 gallons of water every two week sucked bears. Well, our thoughts of “easy” care for a turtle changed when we discovered Winnie’s shell had a few bad spots on it. We think it’s shell rot, which, from what we’ve read, is easily cared for with a little soap wash and less water time. And that’s where we goofed in the past - we had too much water and not enough “sun” for her - which led to her shell problems. So action had to be taken immediately.
That action was a new apartment for Winnie. A trip to the pet store had me coming home with a stone barrier that needed to be siliconed into the aquarium so one half could be set with rocks for basking and the other for her pool. And it’s pretty nice, although I’m not sure Winnie knows what to do with it all yet.
Now there’s 1/4 as much water in the tank, which should make cleaning much easier while still giving her plenty of water for her bodily needs. The project as a whole was a lot easier than I expected. I’m glad I found the little barrier thing. My first thoughts were buying rocks or something and piling them up to create a nice basking area but still having mostly water. The new setup should be nice for her and for us.
I just hope the dogs don’t ask for a new house too.
Ahh… I remember fondly (ok, not so fondly) the days of cleaning out turtle tanks. I think Big G would agree that just because these reptiles live in a small space, doesn’t mean they aren’t a huge pain in the a** to take care of. Sure dogs and cats have fur, etc. Plus dogs need exercise and stuff, but it is no where near, in my opinion, as much of an inconvenience as cleaning out the turtle tank.
Do you guys have a filter? I found that a relatively inexpensive filter (something mid grade with a cleanable filter, rather than disposible) increased the “life” of the water by about 50%… not a lot, but something.
The other thing that I remember is that they do need a dry spot with a lamp, along with a “swimming hole” and also a shady spot. Someplace they can be dry and cool, dry and warm, as well as wet. I know at the pet store they sell those hollowed out, half log things, which is what I used.
Cute little turtle butt! When we had pet rats, I loved redecorating their cage. They had a freakin’ rattie mansion. They really liked new things to do, and obstacles to get through. *sigh* I miss small pets.
I’m down to one Gecko as of Monday night.
I bought those silly lizards in 1998, and never expected that they would live this long.
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RIP: Gecko G
We had a water filter in the turtle’s tank when it was all water and I found the filter didn’t do a very good job and I think just created more yuck faster.
Granted, it wasn’t a crazy high end filter or anything, but I think it just churned the crap around thus creating more crap. Her new space is filter-less as I want to see how long it takes before it needs cleaned. But with half as much water I’m not as inconvenienced to do the cleaning.
If I didn’t have dogs and cat, I think some sort of rodent thing would be fun. Hamster or something. I’d get it one of those run around balls and let it go all over.
Re: Your comment on my blog :)
I scanned those from real art. I’m anal retentive when it comes to my pen weight. But I did do the colors and dots in Photoshop. Photoshop is the only program I use, although we have Illustrator, too. That thing confuses me…. I have some more things that I want to try to digitally paint in photoshop, but it’s a lot harder than I thought.
Hey Renee, someone told me that rats make good pets for kids. I’m thinking of getting some kind of a pet for my classroom. Are rats fun for kids? Somewhat easy to care for?
Awww sorry about your gecko Big G :(
Rats were always my favorite of the small animals. They’re extremely intelligent and social. Remember rat basketball at COSI? Plus they generally bite far less than mice, hamsters or gerbils.
If the kids will be playing with them a lot then you coud get one and it would be cool. If they are not going to have regular interaction then you need to get more than one for company or it will get lonely and gnaw its hair off. They usually live in colonies, so the more you have the happier they will be. If you just have one, however, then it will bond more with your students. If you gt more than one just make sure that you get the same sex or you’ll have LOTS of baby rats on your hands. The males are generally more affectionate than the females, but they have a stronger odor. And their balls are ugly…
I don’t recommend hamsters because they can have a really nasty temperment, especially if the kids wake them up. They are very solitary animals, so you can only have one in a cage or they will kill each other.
Mice tend to bite more than the other rodents, their urine has a particularly strong odor for a such a little animal, and they will spend most of their time trying to get out of the cage. And they’ll probably succeed. But they’re really cute!
Gerbils were always just too high strung for my taste.
Rats it is then! I’ll get two boys. I don’t need a bunch of baby rats. Where can I buy them? Petsmart?
Ask Ma Sulser about rats. If I remember right from when we were kids, she used to breed them.
She can probably fill you in on having them in a classroom.
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Ma Sulser was actually who gave me the idea to have pet rats. I talked to her about it at one of the little one’s birthday party. I’ll have to get in touch with her.