Snapping turtle question .

hello, yesterday while fishing i found a baby common snapping turtle and ive always wanted a turtle, so i decided to take him home. so i have him in a 10 gallon while newly crafted 100g is drying. i was wondering if anyone knew what ratio of water to put in the tank, what kind of decor, feeding, watertemps ect to follow with this turtle. also will a 100g tank be sufficent for a full grown snapper? thanks in advance.
-justin

 

Snapping turtles aren't probably the best bet to keep as a pet. But if you must....

Your 100 gallon tank might be big enough. Snappers grow fast, and get quite large, 14 to 18 inches, some as muchas 60 pounds, and need room to turn around. They're quite dirty. You should plan on doing a complete water change every week/10 days. They need a varied diet, not just meat/fish. They also eat vegetation, so if you try to plant live plants, they're going to get eaten. Commercial turtle pellets, pieces of meat and fish, worms, insects and some vegetation to make up a balanced diet are required if you want to keep your turtle healthy.

Snappers also will move everything around. Uproot plants, move rocks, dig up the bottom. Many vets recommend not putting any type of gravel in the tank, as it makes keeping their environment clean much more difficult. They're also prone to developing sores on the underside of their shell from gravel or sand.

The water level needs to be such that your turtle can extend his neck to allow his nose to be just out of the water while he's resting on the bottom. He'll need some sort of hiding place, but don't use rocks to form a cave. He'll move them around, and could become trapped. Most turtle vets recommend an overturned kitty litter pan with one end cut out, placed in such a way that the turtle can get under it, or crawl on top of it to bask out of the water.

A snapping turtle in the water is not as aggressive as a snapper on dry land. But remember that they do bite, and their bite can be formidable. If he gets hold of you, don't fight, don't try to pull your body part out of his mouth. Relax and don't move until he lets go. The more you pull away, the harder he will hold on. And he will hold on a long time.

 

With regard to holding on for a long time I have a cousin who can testify to that. This is going to sound funny but at the time it wasn't.
Coming home from school my cousin found a large snapper in the middle of the road. He had the bright idea of putting in in a burlap bag and bringing it home. Well, he slung the bag over his shoulder and hadn't gotten very far when the turtle bit him through the bag on the posterior. When he got home his mother and brother tried everything to get the turtle to let go. They poked and proded him to no avail. They even got a large sheet of sheetmetal and shook it to make it sound like thunder. The idea for that is from an old folk tale about a snapping turtle not letting go until it thunders. They ended up putting a mattress out on the summer porch and laying my cousin and the turtle on it until his dad got home, which was about three hours later. When his dad got home he knew that there was only one way to get the turtle to turn loose. So, the end of the story is my cousin has a couple of scars on his hind parts and the turtle lost his life. If your going to keep a snapping turtle he will need a lot of room and you have to be careful. There really is no warning when they bite and they do not let go.

 

Personally I think you did the wrong thing there, you should of left it where it was.. :cry: :cry: Its not used to being confined, and I think if you wanted one you should of gone through the right channels to get one.. IMO

 

I think my sister used to have a snapping turtle. I'm going to foward this to her.