I was recently watching my turtle swimming in her tank, and I started wandering. Does she get bored living there all by himself? So I was thinking of getting him a new friend, but before I did that I decided to do some research, and what I found out was very unexpected. Here are the results of my research.
Do turtles get bored? Yes, turtles can get bored. Even if turtles don’t show their feelings as much as other animals they can get bored.
When I started doing the research I was amazed to see that everybody, from scientists to other turtle owners, said that turtles can get bored. But after continuing with my research I found out that there are a few things that might seem a good idea but in reality, they are terrible for your turtle. And there are quite a few things that you can do to help your turtle get rid of the boredom.
Let’s start with the things that you should avoid
Avoid Adding a New Turtle to the Tank
The most obvious thing that you could do is to get your turtle a new friend. But in reality, this is quite a terrible idea.
The most common thing that can happen if you have more than one turtle in the same tank is that they will fight. Fighting usually happens if you have one or more adult turtles in the same tank, juvenile turtles can be a little less aggressive.
As for the reason, they will fight, well there are a lot of reasons why they will start a fight. One of the reasons can be the food. Even if you give them enough food, they will still try to take each other’s food and this will result in fighting. There is no way to avoid this, at some point they will fight over this if you feed them in the same tank. Placing food for each turtle on separate sides of the tank might seem like a good idea, but at some point, one of the turtles will try to go to the other side to take the food from there as well. The only way to solve this is to feed them one at a time in a separate container, unless you do this they will fight at some point over food.
Another reason why they might fight is for territory. This is just the way animals are, there is no way to stop them from doing this. If you place them in different containers then it doesn’t help them at all with boredom.
While I was researching I thought that placing one male and a female should solve the fighting problem, maybe this way the two turtles will get along, but I was very wrong. If you have one adult male and one adult female in the same tank, the male will continuously try to mate with the female, and at some point, the female will have enough of it and they will start fighting. Placing two males, or two females in the same tank will also lead to fights. So gender doesn’t necessarily play any role in this.
On the other hand, juvenile and baby turtles are actually very peaceful compared to adult turtles. So there are smaller chances of them fighting, but that doesn’t mean that it can’t happen. One of the biggest problems is that they are small, and as a result, their tails can sometimes look like worms or other small animals, and because of that, they can sometimes bite each other’s tails. As a result that their tails can be nipped and this will lead to permanent scars and to fight as well.
Placing an adult turtle with a juvenile turtle will basically result in the smaller turtle being bullied by the bigger turtle for every reason possible, so this is also not an option.
Another big problem is that one turtle can assert its dominance over the others, this will mean that the others won’t get to eat as much food and that they will also not get to bask as much, and over time this can lead to serious health problems.
Turtles just like being alone, you won’t find a turtle that likes to have company, instead, you might find that there can be turtles that are able to tolerate other turtles. After all, every turtle has a slightly different personality, and this can play a big role in how well they get with other turtles.
I’m not trying to tell you that keeping more than one turtle in the same tank is impossible, it is, but you will need a very big tank so that your turtles won’t have to interact with each other as much. But again this kind of goes against the idea of having a company.
So other turtles aren’t a good idea, but what about other reptiles?
Placing a turtle with another reptile
Unfortunately placing a turtle with another reptile is also a bad idea. Even if reptiles as a whole can be very different in appearance and customs, they all share one personality trait, they like to be alone.
So everything that can happen with two turtles can happen with a turtle and a snake, or a gecko, or a gecko, or any kind of lizard. The only difference is that the fights will be more dangerous.
Even if they don’t seem like it, turtles can defeat some snake species, and usually, the wounds left behind can be very dangerous. And if a snake tries to eat a turtle, the shell can present a lot of problems during digestion. So it doesn’t matter who wins the fight, they will both have to suffer.
Unlike snakes and turtles, lizards can be very different from species to species, so I can’t give you an exact example of what can happen if they fight, but let’s just say that it won’t end in a good way for either of them.
Having a turtle and a snake, or a lizard, can actually be more dangerous than having two turtles. When two turtles fight they don’t have any advantage or disadvantage over the other, so the fight usually ends after just a couple of scratches or bites. And that is not enough to make severe wounds. But if a snake and a turtle fight things can be very different because the fight is not balanced at all.
So placing another reptile is also not a good idea, then what about fish?
Adding fishes to the turtle tank
The good news is that they won’t fight. The bad news is that the fish won’t usually be able to stay more than a couple of weeks in the tank without being eaten. But for some time they might help with the boredom.
Turtles really like meat, and in the wild most turtles can’t wait for the day when they will catch a fish. So placing your turtle in the same aquarium with some fish can probably make the turtle a little happier.
Turtles don’t care if the fish has really nice colors, they will eat any kind of fish, even if some of them are not so great for their health.
But if you want to know more about turtles and fishes, and why some fishes are not good for your turtle’s health, you can read this article where the subject is discussed in more detail: Do Turtles Eat Fish?
So fishes are somewhat of a solution, but definitely not the best one. So what else can you do?
Taking Your Turtle Out for a Walk
One simple way to solve the problem with boredom is to occasionally take your turtle out for a walk. Once a week should be enough.
To walk a turtle you don’t need any special equipment like a leash or anything like that. Just take your turtle out of the tank and let it walk on the floor.
There are just three things that you have to be careful about.
The first one is to make sure that your turtle doesn’t run in a tight place from where you can’t take it out. Regardless of what you might have heard turtles are not that slow, when they are scared they can really run.
The second thing that you have to be careful of is how you handle your turtle, be careful not to scare it too much, otherwise, your turtle will just sit in its shell and won’t move. This is also quite common behavior for turtles if they aren’t used to being taken out of the tank. If your turtle hides in its shell there are two things that you can do. The first one is to wait, and the second is to try to get it out of its shell by using some food as bait.
And the final thing that you have to be careful about are other animals. Cats and especially dogs really like to play with turtles.
Now let’s move to the next thing that you can do to make your turtle happier.
Toys
This is probably the simplest, most obvious, and efficient way to help your turtle get rid of boredom.
A lot of people don’t really think about toys as an option because there are very few toys made for turtles if any. But a toy doesn’t have to be made for a specific animal. A ball for example can be used by humans as well as cats and dogs.
So what kind of toys should you buy for your turtle.
The answer is quite simple: anything that isn’t too small, so your turtle doesn’t eat it. Anything that your turtle won’t bite chunks out of. And something that can float.
A long as you take those three factors into consideration you should be able to find a lot of toys.
More Space
One other possible solution is to get a bigger tank for your turtle. As long as your turtle will have enough space to swim as much as it wants boredom won’t be a problem anymore.
Conclusion
So turtles can get bored. But what they are missing is definitely not a playmate. What your turtle really needs are a few toys, a little more space, and an occasional walk.
I hope that you found this article useful and that your turtle won’t be bored anymore. If you have any questions about bored turtles or turtles in general don’t hesitate to leave them in the comment section below. I will do my best to answer it as soon as possible.
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