Evening star., 1944-08-01
This and That
BIZ Charles Z. TrdceUeU.
"TAKOMA PARK. Nd.

0y (LUTtSS b. ITQCEUcn.
"TAKOMA PARK, Md.
Dear Sir:
IT have had q number Of small turtles
as pets, but they have al died very
quickly. Gould you, tell Ins. what Il
wrong with them and how could help
them to live longer?
II keep them In large glass fish
bowl with about one inch Of water In It,
and stones and shells on the bottom for
them to climb out onto. I feed them
turtle food, consisting Of shrimp meal,
dried bugs and ant eggs. only have
one turtle at time.
Il am interested in turtles as pets. for
think they are amusing and cute, and
I would like to take the best possible
care OF them. Sincerely, P. B."
There is nothing wrong with the
turtles. What is wrong is something in
the manner OF keeping.
Usually 1t is the food, or lack of sun
shine.
Some Of the commercial foods do not
contain the right ingredients. This may
be remedied by giving the creature
scraped beef, meat which has been
scraped with knife, just a 1t u done
for a baby.
Lack Of such fresh meat is one Of the
common reasons for failure with these
pets.
Another is lack Of sunshine. Often
It causes q turtle eye disease which II
anything but pleasant, either to the
creature itself or those who must look
at it. The remedy is plenty Of sun and
q chance for the creature to get into
mud. It Is best to offer the mud in q
separate dish into which 1t can crawl
easily. Sometimes . little boric acid
solution may be dropped from . medi-
cine dropper onto the eyes. It should
be done gently.
Turtle shells become soft because Of
lack OF sunshine and certain lime foods
for shell building. Mostly turtles which
get into this condition are pretty far
gone, but something may be done to
try to save them. A bit Of fish may be
fed, and it is essential to give It to
them ground, and with some Of the
bone ground in. The creature should
be given opportunity to get into the
sunshine, but in summer 1t also must be
able to crawl into shade whenever It
wishes.
Sunshine, Of course, will cause the
water to become green, and this is not
"a harmful condition unless it is sullied
by bits of food which have not been
removed. Dirty water often causes
disease, and for this reason great care
should be taken to give the turtle clean
water at all times.
Land turtles like berries, bananas.
mushrooms, earthworms, insects, meat,s
apples, celery, crickets. bread and to-
matoes, as well as lettuce and tender
vegetables.
Water turtles will eat meat, fish.
snails and some floating water plants.
such as Azolla Lemna and Salyinia.
most OF which can be secured, at least
In normal times, at pet shops.
Turtles and tortoises are the only
sorts recognized by biologists. Terra
pin" is a commercial word applied to
saltwater species.
Most fresh-water species and all ma
rine species are called turtles, whereas
most terrestrial species are called tor.
toises.
The little turtles" sold in pet shops
usually are Cumberland turtles, those
with bright green shells and q wide red
stripe from the eye backward along the
neck; the common pond or painted
turtles, those which are black, with q
thin yellow stripe down the back, dis
appearing to give place to mottled red
edge; the, geographic turtles, with
"water-marked" grayish-brown upper
shell tcarapace) and yellow lower shell
(plastron).
We think it would be . good idea to
try IN ailing pet turtle on house fiies,
especially fies which have been stunned
but which still have some kick left in
them. This bit Of movement u attrac-
tive to the turtle. IN practically every
case Of illness something more than pre-.
pared turtle food" Il needed to bring
the pets out Of their doldrsms.