Turtles & Tortoises E-Book

Russ Case

• Herausgeber: CompanionHouse Books
• Kategorie: Für Kinder und Jugendliche
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 138

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2007

Beschreibung

In this Advanced Vivarium Systems book Turtles & Tortoises, beginning hobbyists of all ages will find amazing facts and useful information about turtles and tortoises from around the world. Author Russ Case, a noted author and reptile and amphibian specialist, recommends the best twelve turtles and tortoises for first-time keepers, not counting, of course, the familiar box turtle. From the smaller examples, like the mud turtle that grows only 5 inches, to the Galapagos giant tortoise, which can weigh over 700 pounds, Turtles & Tortoises opens up the whole captivating world of chelonians to the reader. This colorful guide covers the origins of these fascinating creatures as well as the health, feeding, housing, and care of these fascinating creatures. Sidebars throughout offer facts, tips, and advice. Glossary of terms.

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Copyright © 2007 by I-5 Press™

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of I-5 Press™, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in an acknowledged review.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Case, Russ.

Turtles & tortoises / by Russ Case.

p. cm. — (Beginning vivarium systems)

ISBN-13: 978-1-882770-93-9

eISBN-13: 978-1-620080-32-0

ISBN-10: 1-882770-93-5

1. Turtles as pets. I. Title. II. Title: Turtles and tortoises.

SF459.T8C37 2007

639.3'92—dc22

2006029681

An Imprint of I-5 Press™

A Division of I-5 Publishing, LLC™

3 Burroughs

Irvine, California 92618

Printed and bound in China

16 15 14 13 12 11     4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Manufacturer: Bestywell Date of Production: Summer 2011 Printed & Bound in: China Print Facility Location: Shenzhen Printer Job Number: P10021387

Contents

1 Reptiles as Pets

2 What Chelonians Look Like

3 Where to Find Turtles & Tortoises

4 Making a Good Turtle Home

5 Making a Good Tortoise Home

6 Chelonian Chow

7 Turtles Are Terrific!

8 Time to Talk Tortoises

9 Potential Health Problems

10 Turtles in Trouble

11 Dos and Don’ts for Owners

Glossary

Recommended Reading

Photo Credits

About the Author

CHAPTER 1

Reptiles as Pets

Compared with other animals, reptiles (including turtles, tortoises, lizards, and snakes) sometimes get a bum rap. Lots of people think reptiles—especially snakes—are slimy creatures that want to bite and squeeze them and maybe even use their fangs to inject them with poison. So when the time comes to choose a pet, millions of people pick animals that are friendlier.

Red-eared slider

Take dogs, for example. Dog owners can play and exercise with their pooches, brush their fur, dress them up, and perhaps even enter them in dog shows. There are special dog beaches and parks, where dog owners gather by the dozens. There you see dogs running all around, playing, barking, and having a great time—it’s just like a kid’s playground but hairier and with more slobber.

Dogs are loved because they give love back. They may lick people’s faces, jump on them, sleep in their beds, and ride in their cars, and they want to be with their people all the time.

With reptiles, things are different. I’ve never been to a snake beach or a lizard park, where people frolic and play with their scaly pets. Turtles don’t jump up and down when their owners come home from work. Lizards and turtles don’t lick your face to show how much they love you, and I’ve never seen a tortoise riding in a car with its head hanging out the window and tongue flapping in the breeze. Pet reptiles aren’t as interactive as dogs and some other pets are. A pet reptile may not want to be handled all the time, generally won’t snuggle with you, and may not respond to your affection (although many tolerate some handling). Although reptiles are not usually interactive, they still can make great pets—especially for kids! On the following page are some reasons why.

These Russian tortoises make good pets for beginners, including younger herpers.

Russian tortoise

Ten Reasons Reptiles Make Great Pets

If the adults in your house are not sure about adding a reptile to the family, ask them to consider the following points:

1. There are some great harmless beginner reptiles for kids to keep.

2. Compared with other pets, reptiles are low maintenance.

3. The risk of injury to responsible children is much lower than the risk of a dog bite, a cat scratch, or even a peck from a parakeet or nip from a hamster.

4. Reptiles are quiet.

5. The foods reptiles eat are readily available at pet shops and grocery stores.

6. Reptiles don’t have to be fed every single day (but they shouldn’t be starved).

7. Reptiles aren’t hairy and don’t have dander, so they make great pets for people with allergies.

8. Reptiles are easier to care for than almost any other pet.

9. Keeping reptiles teaches young owners responsibility and can help them grow into sensitive, caring adults.

10. Reptiles are really cool—just ask your kids!

Black-knobbed map turtle

Superpopular Pets

Reptiles have become superpopular over the past several years. Go to any pet store, and you’ll see what I mean. For one thing, you’ll find many different species, or types, of herps.

At pet stores, in addition to seeing lots of cool reptiles, you’ll find oodles of stuff to help you take care of pet herps.

Lots of companies sell products that make it easy to provide pet reptiles with happy homes. They include different types of lights, gizmos to keep your herps warm, branches for them to climb on, cages to keep them in, and bowls for their water and food. (In chapters 4 and 5, you can read more about items such as these.)

There are even pet stores that sell only reptiles. You won’t find dogs, parakeets, tropical fish, or cats there, but you are likely to see many different species of turtles and tortoises, lizards, frogs, snakes, and other really interesting animals.

People have been keeping pet herps for decades, but since 1993 the hobby has become really popular. I can tell you why: it is because of the movie Jurassic Park. I don’t just write books about reptiles. I am also the editor of Reptiles magazine, and the fact that the magazine came out at about the same time as Jurassic Park was really lucky! People saw the movie, loved it, and as a result many wanted to learn about reptiles and how to keep them.

What’s a Herp?

Herp is a nickname for a reptile or an amphibian, and it comes from the word herpetology, which means the study of reptiles and amphibians. A scientist who studies these animals is called a herpetologist.

Reptile keeping has become very popular over the years.

Young people’s interest in dinosaurs often leads to an interest in keeping pet reptiles.

Dinosaurs are fascinating. Of course, it’s impossible to keep one as a pet. (If you could find one, it would probably be really expensive, and it scares me to think how expensive it would be to feed it.) Many people think the next best thing to having their own little T. rex is to own a pet lizard. And although it’s great that so many people became interested in reptiles after seeing Jurassic Park, there was a sad side to their new popularity.

A pet turtle might be the next best thing to a pet dinosaur!

Something You Should Never Do

After Jurassic Park came out, many pet herps, including turtles and tortoises (but especially lizards), were bought on impulse by people who didn’t know how to take proper care of them. The movie Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles also caused a big demand for pet chelonians. People would (and still do) see a neat-looking reptile in a store and buy it right then and there. After all, these animals are very interesting, and some are really colorful. Impulse buyers take their new pets home and just put them in cages, where they often slowly fade away. Even today, many reptiles die or end up in animal shelters because of this. That is why you should never buy a pet reptile on impulse.

Long, Long Time

Throughout this book, it is repeatedly pointed out that you should know how to house and care for a turtle or a tortoise before bringing one home. Something else to keep in mind is that these are long-lived animals. So you not only will need to know how to take care of a turtle or tortoise but also could end up having to do so for a long, long time. Aquatic turtles—turtles that spend most of their time in the water—can live for more than 40 years. Some tortoises can live to be 100! So keep in mind that if you get a pet turtle or tortoise, it could be with you for a very long time.

If you’re a smart, caring owner, you’ll have a lot of fun with your reptile pets—even though they won’t fetch your slippers or the newspaper! So, congratulations if you’ve decided you want to take a shot at keeping them. Now, let’s take a closer look at the world of turtles and tortoises, the reptiles you came here to read about!

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles inspired many people to buy turtles on impulse, which was unfortunate.

CHAPTER 2

What Chelonians Look Like

Turtles and tortoises are also called chelonians (keh-LO-nee-enz). Chelonians are reptiles, as are snakes and lizards. Although people don’t all agree on how long turtles and tortoises have been on Earth, one estimate has them here for the past 200 million years. There are currently about 300 chelonian species alive today.

Western painted turtles

What is the difference between a turtle and a tortoise? Generally speaking, turtles spend most of their time in the water, and tortoises live on land. An animal that lives on land is terrestrial; one that lives in the water is aquatic. Thus, many turtles are called aquatic, or water, turtles. This doesn’t mean they never come out of the water—all of them do at one time or another. Even the sea turtles, which live in the ocean, come out of the water to lay their eggs.

Turtles are considered aquatic because they live in the water.

There are exceptions to the rule, however. Box turtles, for instance, differ from other turtles in that they live on land primarily and do not enter water as regularly as their aquatic cousins do. Also going against the norm are the tortoises, such as hingeback tortoises, that live in moist areas.

Although they may prefer different types of habitats, turtles and tortoises are both immediately recognizable by one feature no other reptile has—a shell. Shells can vary quite a bit from species to species. Other body parts, such as feet, can as well. So let’s take a look at the various physical features of chelonians.

What’s a Habitat?

A habitat is the type of place an animal naturally lives, such as the ocean, the grassland, or the desert.

Turtle Stories

The word chelonian comes from the Greek. According to Greek mythology, Chelone was a nymph (a minor goddess) who turned down an invitation to attend the wedding of Zeus and Hera (think of them as the royalty of all the Greek gods). She preferred not to leave her house to come to the wedding, and this was considered a great insult. To teach Chelone a lesson, Zeus turned her into a tortoise. By doing that, he forced her to always carry her house on her back—which, as you probably know, tortoises and turtles do to this day.

Tortoises and turtles play important roles in many cultures around the world. According to some Native American legends, the world was built on the back of a giant turtle. A Chinese legend links Nu Kua, the goddess who created people, with chelonians. It says she took four toes from a titanic tortoise (sometimes called the cosmic tortoise) and used them to form the four compass points of north, south, east, and west.

Then there’s the fable by Aesop called The Tortoise and the Hare, in which the tortoise wins a race against the much faster hare by being slow and deliberate, rather than fast and careless. This fable led not only to the well-known saying “Slow and steady wins the race” but also to some cartoon versions of the story, including one by Walt Disney and another starring Bugs Bunny. Thanks in large part to Aesop’s fable, tortoises in other stories have often been portrayed as wise old creatures.

You can see that turtles and tortoises have been an important part of many people’s beliefs, and they have been used to teach some important lessons.

Wondrous Shells

A shell provides turtles and tortoises with shelter and protection. You may think the shell is only the top part of a turtle’s body, but it actually wraps around the entire body, top and bottom. The top part of the shell is called the carapace. The bottom part, or the underside of the animal, is called the plastron.

Both the carapace and the plastron are made of many bones that are fused together and attached to the turtle’s spine and rib cage. The shell is covered with scutes, which are plates that form a protective layer that works like a shield. It is the scutes you are looking at when you look at a turtle or tortoise.

This is the plastron of a Western painted turtle. It looks painted, doesn’t it?

Softshell turtles have leathery shells, not hard shells like other species’.

All chelonians have shells, but not all their shells are the same. For instance, there are softshell turtles. The carapace of these flat turtles is missing the hard scutes and is instead leathery and flexible.

What Are Scutes?

Scutes, which cover the shells of chelonians, are made of keratin, the same substance that makes our fingernails. Think of scutes as big and protective fingernails.

Box turtle shells are hinged so they can close up tight.

There’s a really big turtle that doesn’t have a hard carapace. The leatherback sea turtle can grow to 8 feet (2.5 meters) in length and weigh about 1,500 pounds (6,805 kilograms). This huge turtle is called leatherback because its back is covered with leathery skin (and bones to support it).

Box turtles have unique shells, too. They are called box turtles because they can completely close themselves up inside their shells. The plastron of a box turtle is hinged on the bottom, which allows it to close up tightly against the carapace after the turtle has pulled in its head, legs, and tail. People have had their fingers caught inside box turtle shells. To get a turtle to open up its shell, it has to be placed in a bucket of water. The sudden immersion in water can surprise the turtle into opening up—not to mention that it needs to breathe air and will open up to do so. Needless to say, I don’t recommend that you go poking your fingers into any box turtles’ shells. It’s not nice to do that anyway.

Looking at Shells

Turtles and tortoises are instantly recognizable by their shells. But not all carapaces are alike. Here are some colorful examples of the variety of shells out there:

The red-footed tortoise’s shell is dark with reddish yellow spots.

The leopard tortoise gets its name from the leopardlike pattern of its shell.

This is a yellow-blotched map turtle from southern Mississippi.

The diamondback terrapin has a very distinctive shell pattern.

Red-eared sliders come in different colors. This is a pastel slider.

This red-eared slider’s shell and body are deformed.

Turtles and tortoises can’t leave their shells the way, for instance, a hermit crab can. A hermit crab is not attached to its shell, so as it grows larger, it must leave its shell and find a larger one. A chelonian shell, however, is actually attached to the animal—the shell grows as the animal grows. Some unlucky chelonians though, have shells that don’t grow. These deformed shells can look like twisted little caps on top of the poor turtle’s back. Pet animals may survive, at least for a while, with such deformities, but any time a wild animal’s typical appearance and form of protection is changed, its life is put at risk because predators may zero in on it. A healthy shell, however, grows right along with its owner.

The shape of the carapace can vary. Aquatic turtles are usually somewhat flattened, which makes it easier for them to swim through the water. Most tortoise shells and box turtle shells, however, are usually higher and shaped more like a dome or a bell. There is one tortoise with a flat carapace, and it’s actually called the pancake tortoise. (See chapter 8.)

Something else about the shell: it often leads to pet chelonians being named Shelley and Sheldon.

Feet and Flippers

Another physical characteristic that some turtles have that no other reptile has is flippers. Most chelonians have feet—tortoises have strong legs with big toenails. Box turtles have fairly stumpy feet. And some male aquatic turtles have feet with long claws. But sea turtles have flippers.

Birds Aren’t the Only Ones with Beaks