Turtles, Tortoises, and Terrapins



Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

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As some of us are aware there’s yet another installment of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (affiliate link) coming out soon. We’d like to remind our Tribe this is a perfect time for outreach with the younger herpers by sharing with them. We all enjoy a great movie. However, many parents in an attempt to teach their children personal accountability sometimes purchase pets which are inappropriate. We’ve seen this with Finding Nemo (affiliate link) and the large increase in not just saltwater fish keeping but specifically of Clown fish purchases. Should you be interested in Saltwater fish keeping do yourself a favour and see our friend Mr. Saltwater Tank. Some of our colleagues have mentioned the same occurring with Red Eared Slider Turtles following the release of a TMNT. It’s up to us to bring the Disposable Pet Nation mentality to a halt.

Turtles, tortoises, & terrapins oh my!

We’re often asked

Is there a difference between turtles, tortoises, & terrapins?

As a matter of fact there is. Turtles lead a life which is tied to water. They may not live directly in the water but they live near it and spend a good part of their time in the water. Tortoises are to be thought of as mostly a dry animal without the necessity of living close to water. Terrapins such as the Diamond Back Terrapin are brackish water turtles. There’s a lot of misinformation available leading people to believe Diamond Back Terrapins are a more terrestrial species but this is in fact not the case as evidenced not only by personal observations (h/t James Tintle) and many other colleagues have concluded the same. I’ll be covering this in-depth in the coming months so stay tuned to the Reptile Apartment Facebook Fan Page for updates!