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Anonymous File :-(, x)
I have a pet red-eared slider, which is a type of aquatic turtle. He's definitely what I consider to be a very "happy" turtle. He's very active, watchs people and follows them when they walk past his tank, follows your fingers, and likes eating a lot. Aquatic turtles are much more active than land turtles. But we pay for his happiness. Like, he has a really big tank (thirty 40 gallons or something, but he's a big turtle), an underwater heater, a heat lamp, and an expensive filter. The cage itself is simple though, it's empty except for one nice log. (We used to have gravel and rocks but they're imposible to clean). We also have to pay for food and everything.
Most people don't bother setting up nice big tanks for their pet turtles, unfortunately. Some don't even buy basking lamps or heating lamps. Um, turtles are reptiles, and they need heat to survive, morons. One of my friends also had a red-eared slider turtle as a pet, but hers was only a few inches big (my turtle is roughly ten inches, but I havent bothered to measure) and she kept it in a plastic tank with less than an inch of cold water and gravel. Of course, the turtle froze/starved, was very unhappy, and died. If you're going to have a pet turtle, make sure you're ready to do it right...
Land turtles and tortoises I have much less experience, but I bet they are like something between my pet turtle and my pther pet Bearded Dragon (that's a spiky desert lizard.) Land turtles don't move much or fast, obviously, but they're cold-blooded reptiles which unless provoked, hardly ever do. But a tortoise can still have a nice warm and large tank and be fed real plants like chopped lettuce and carrots rather than just pellets. Maybe having a partner in it's tank would be nice too because I dont think turtles are aggressive or territorial. (Rather unrelated, but one time at the zoo I saw big tortoises actually having sex and grunting...) I guess this is what would make a tortoise happy.
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