How to Take Care of Baby Turtles (Simple Beginners Guide)

Taking care of a baby turtle can seem quite daunting at first, but if you know what you are doing it can be an easy and pleasant experience. Over the years I’ve raised quite a few baby turtles which are now full-grown and healthy adults. So I decided to share my experience with everybody that wants to get a pet baby turtle.

In order to take proper care of a baby turtle you need a tank that is at least 40 gallons, a water filter and a heater, a basking area with a heat and UVB bulb, and proper turtle food which often means pleats as well as snacks like dried insects.

In this guide, we will go over all the basic things that you should know, and I will also give you a few tips along the way from my own personal experience. Here is what we are going to cover:

Choosing the right tank
The temperature of the water
A proper basking area
A balanced diet

Choosing the Right Tank

The first thing that you have to do before you get a baby turtle is get a proper tank.

As a general rule, you want your tank to have at least 10 gallons of water for every inch of shell your turtle has.

Most baby turtles aren’t bigger than 2 inches, so a 20-gallon tank should be enough for now. But young turtles can grow quite fast so if you can you should get a bigger tank from the start, so you don’t have to buy a new one later.

If you are not sure how to choose a tank you should check out our recommended products section and take a look at our picks for the best turtle tanks, from our personal experience with them.

The Temperature of the Water

Now that you have a tank, you want to add water. But you have to be careful with the temperature.

Turtles can’t generate any body heat on their own so they rely on the temperature of the environment, so they are quite sensitive to temperature.

The exact temperature will differ from species to species, but in general, 80 degrees Fahrenheit (27 degrees Celsius), will be good enough for most turtles.

Getting the water to 80 degrees is quite simple, but you will need a water heater. Just be careful when you choose one, most water heaters on the market are designed for fish tanks so they aren’t able to resist in a turtle tank. So you want one that comes with a guard or some kind of protection.

Here is a link to the tank heater that I’ve been using for the last 5 years: Submersible Aquarium Heater. I don’t have too many things to say about it, it’s a good and reliable heater, it comes with a guard, and you can easily select the temperature. So everything that you want from a heater.

One other article that you might want to check out is this one: How to Make Tap Water Safe for Turtles. Not all tap water is safe for turtles, so you should make sure that the water that you add to the tank is not bad for your turtle.

Now let’s move to the next step, the basking area.

The Basking Area

A basking area is essential for any turtle, as it provides them with UVB rays as well as heat, so you have to make sure that everything is in order.

In short, a basking area is basically a platform on which your turtle can get up and spend some time in “the sun”. You can either build your own basking area or buy one. The platform itself is not that important, it just has to be solid and stable enough for your turtle, what’s important is the light.

Turtles need two special light bulbs, one of them to provide heat, and the other to provide UVB rays.

UVB light plays a vital role in the production of Vitamin D3 which is essential for the calcium in the body. Without UVB light turtles wouldn’t be able to get the proper amount of calcium which can lead to improper bone growth, metabolic bone disease, softshell, shell rot, and many other bad things.

The heat bulb provides heat that turtles desperately need since they are unable to produce their own body heat.

Now let’s see how to choose good bulbs for your turtle.

When it comes to UVB light, there are two types: bulbs and tubes, overall I would say that tubes are better but you can’t go wrong with either. Just make sure that you get UVB and not UVA, it’s quite a common mistake. While UVA light won’t hurt your turtle, it won’t do the same things as UVB light.

Choosing a heat bulb is a little more complicated. You have to take into consideration how much heat your turtle species needs (it slightly differs from species to species, but overall 95 degrees Fahrenheit is a good temperature). How powerful the bulb is and how far from your turtle the bulb is. Here is an illustration that will help you choose the right heat bulb.

With this quick guide you should be able to choose the right bulbs for your turtle, but if you want to know more details, and the possible alternatives you should check out this article where I discuss the subject more in-depth: Guide for Lighting and Heating a Turtle Tank and Basking Area.

A Balanced Diet

The final thing that you should know is what you should feed your turtle, and how much you should feed your turtle.

What Baby Turtles Eat

Most turtles are omnivorous, so they will eat fruits, vegetables, and meat. Baby turtles will have a similar diet to an adult turtle, but with one major difference, they will need considerably more proteins.

A balanced diet will be like this:

80% pellets
10% fruits and vegetables
10% meat / dried insects

As you can see pellets will make up most of their diet, while fruits vegetables and meat will be like snacks, or treats.

Baby turtles will need special turtle pleats which contain more protein than regular ones. If you can’t find pellets for babies you can always grove them a little more meat or dried insects.

How Much You Should Feed Your Turtle

The simplest way to find the right amount of food for your turtle is to follow the size of the head method.

The easiest way to put this method into practice is to find a small container, like a medicine cup, a shot glass, or a bottle cap. This container has to be approximately the same size as the head of your turtle, without the neck. Then you fill that container to the top, and then you can feed the food inside the container to your turtle.

You don’t always have to use a container, you can always just estimate the food that you would need to fill its head. If you sometimes give your turtle a little too much food, and sometimes you give it a little too much, things will be just fine. Your turtle won’t be affected by small differences.

This method works great because it takes into consideration the size of the turtle, and gives you a fixed amount of food that you have to give your turtle. And as the turtle grows the amount of food will change.

This method is also very easy to determine how often you have to feed your turtle. If you follow this method you will have to feed a baby turtle every day, a juvenile turtle every two days, and an adult turtle once every three days.

So this should cover all the basic things that you should know. So let’s move to some common questions that might appear.

Common Questions

Should I Get More Than One Baby Turtle?

It all depends on how much time and effort you are willing to put into taking care of them and the space that you have at your disposal. From my experience, there is not such a big difference between raising one baby turtle or two baby turtles, at least in the beginning.

When they are small they won’t eat any significant amount of food so you don’t have to worry too much about this part. Two, or more turtles will definitely make more mess in the tank so you will have to clean it a little more often.

You will also need a bigger tank to keep them in, and as they get bigger they will need even more space and this can become a problem at some point.

There is also the fact that as turtles reach maturity they will start being aggressive toward each other. When they are babies they can live peacefully together but as they reach adulthood this will change, so they will need more space so they don’t have to interact with each other all the time. Two of my turtles were so aggressive toward each other that I had to put them in separate aquariums at some point. But not all turtles will become that aggressive, this will depend on their species and their personality as well.

And if you want to get more than one turtle because you don’t want your turtle to be lonely you shouldn’t bother. In fact, they prefer it that way, if you want to know more about the social life of turtles check out this article on our blog: Are Turtles Social Animals?

Would I Get Some Water Plants?

Don’t bother with water plants if you want to keep them for decorative purposes, turtles will eat them very quickly. In the wild water plants are often one of their main sources of food, and even if baby turtles need more protein than adult turtles this won’t stop them from eating the plants. In my turtle tank, no plant has managed to resist more than a couple of days without being half-eaten. So plants as decoration are a waste of time, plants as food are an option.

What Should I Do if My Turtle Looks Sick?

There is only one thing that you should do if your turtle looks sick, and that is to take it to the vet. Don’t look online for cures or solutions, turtles are hard to diagnose and not all the advice that you find online is good.

One thing that you have to keep in mind is that any turtle will need some time to get used to its new environment so during this time it might exhibit unusual behavior, which might make you think that your turtle is sick. To avoid any confusion my advice is to go to the vet as soon as you get your turtle.

Final Thoughts

Now you should know everything that you need to be a good and responsible turtle owner. If you still have questions you can always leave them in the comment section and I will answer them as soon as possible.