What Do You Need for a Pet Turtle? Find Out Now

Turtles can be great pets, especially for new pet owners and kids. The reason for this is that most of them stay relatively small, and they don’t need too much maintenance. But what about the equipment?

What do you need for a pet turtle? For a pet turtle you will need the following things:

A tank
A water filter
A water heater
A basking area
A heat lamp
Food

So this is everything that you will need for a pet turtle. But you have to be careful when you choose each one of them because not every tank or every water filter will do. But don’t worry, in the rest of the article, I will cover everything that you will need to know in order to choose the best things for your turtle.

The Tank

So the first and most important thing you will need is a tank where your turtle will live.

When choosing a tank for your turtle you have to think about two things: first is that as a general rule of thumb you are going to need at least 10 gallons of water per inch of shell, so if the shell of your turtle is 4 inches long, you will need a 40-gallon tank. If the shell length is 2 inches you will need a 20 gallons tank.

The second thing is that your turtle is going to grow really fast if it’s still a baby or a juvenile.

There are several reasons why you will want to get a bigger tank from the start. The first one is that in the long run, you are going to save a lot more money if you get the biggest tank from the start and you won’t have to get a new cheaper one every couple of years when your turtle grows too big for its current tank.

Another reason you will want a bigger tank from the start is that turtles are very messy, and a bigger tank means more water, more water means that your turtle will need more time to make it dirty, so instead of having to clean the tank once a week, you will have to clean it once every two, or even three weeks.

Cleaning the tank is not that hard but it can get pretty repetitive and a little annoying after you do it every week for years and years, so you can at least make things easier for you in the beginning.

The Water Filter

The first thing you should look for in a filter is power. When you choose a filter you have to make sure that is able to filter all the water in your tank. You can buy a filter that is built for a 50 gallons tank even if you have a 25 gallons tank, but you should never use a filter that is not able to filter all the water in the tank.

A good filter will also allow you to change the filtration medium. There are a lot of things that you can use in a filter to address certain needs, some of them are better at getting rid of the smell, others are better at getting rid of excessive ammonia ( you can identify your needs by using a kit that I will explain in the rest of this article ). So a good filter will allow you to easily change the filtration medium.

The noise done by a filter can sometimes be disturbing, so you can also take this into consideration when choosing a filter. The noise level of a filter is not necessarily equal to its performance, but most filters will usually make some noise.

One last thing that is essential to a good filter is clog proof. This one is mostly self-explanatory, if your filter gets clogged it won’t be able to filter.

A Water Heater

The final thing that you will need for the water is a water heater.

Every turtle species will need a slightly different water temperature. And as they age they will age you might also need to adjust the water temperature. So it’s important to get an adjustable water heater.

Now we are done with the water part, so we will move to the next essential part the basking area.

A Basking Area

Basking areas are vital for good turtle health, and if you don’t know too much about turtles you might not know that turtles need a place where they can heat up, and get UV light.

A basin area is just simply a platform above the water where your turtle can stay and get some light. You can either improvise one, or you can buy one from a pet shop.

A proper basking area needs to have a certain temperature, based on the species of the turtle, and it also needs a UVB bulb, that provides UVB light, which is essential for the turtles to produce Vitamin D3 and to properly use calcium and other nutrients.

Making a proper basking area is not hard, but it’s essential for the turtle and it can be easily overlooked by somebody who doesn’t know too much about turtles.

A Heat Lamp

The heat lamp will light the basking area and will provide the necessary heat for your turtle.

Turtles are cold-blooded reptiles so the temperature of their body depends on the temperature of the environment. So the simplest answer to this is to warm up, this answer might seem too simple at the first glance but in reality, the only reason pet turtles need a heating lamp is to warm up, the light from the UVB light usually takes care of the rest of their needs.

The specifics of the UVB light and heat lamp, are an entire subject on their own, one which I discussed in more detail in this article Guide for Lighting and Heating a Turtle Tank and Basking Area. So if you want more details about it you can check out that article.

Now we will move to the last thing that you need to know about, and that is food.

Food

One of the most important things in the life of any turtle is food. In the wild turtles have access to a variety of foods from which they can choose: fruits, vegetables, various plants, fish, insects, animal meat, etc. But as pets they don’t have access to the same variety, instead, they are reliant on the food that we choose for them. So it’s up to us to make the best choices for them.

So when it comes to food you generally have to maintain a balanced diet that will replicate what they would have been able to eat in nature, so you should feed them: dried insects, pellets, fruits, and vegetables.

In general, pellets are the main food source, and the rest of the items on the list are only served occasionally.

So the most important part is to make sure that you choose some good pellets. If you want help on this part you can read this article that I’ve written in collaboration with the rest of the TurtleOwner team, in this article we cover most brands on the market: Buyer’s Guide: Best Turtle Food.

Conclusion

So here is the list of the things that a turtle will need:

A tank
A water filter
A water heater
A basking area
A heat lamp
Food

As long as you have those things your turtle should live a great life.

If you want some help in choosing the best things for your turtle you can always check out the Recommended Gear Page, where you will find our recommendations for the best items.

I hope you’ve found this article helpful, and if you have any questions you can always leave them in the comment section and I will do my best to answer them as soon as possible.