Although letting your pet turtles breed and hatch baby turtles may seem like a good idea, there are some things that you have to consider before deciding to bring baby turtles into the world. This is especially important if you want to hatch baby turtles to teach your kids about the circle of life, as it is just as important that they learn how to be responsible pet owners.
It is illegal to sell any turtle that is smaller than 4 inches (10cm) in diameter, unless it’s being sold for educational or exhibition purposes. Depending on your turtles, you may get quite a number of hatchlings that you will be responsible for caring for until they are 4 inches (10 cm), which will take several years in most cases. If you are not prepared to care for a number of turtles for a long period of time, you should seriously reconsider hatching baby turtles.
Turtles are well-known for carrying salmonella, and great care must be taken when working with adult turtles to avoid contamination. Hatchling turtles carry even more salmonella, which means there’s an even greater chance of getting infected if you are not careful when handling your baby turtles. If you have very young children in the house, this is especially important as children are more prone to putting things in their mouth and do not wash their hands as often or as well as adults do.
Although your turtles will be doing all the work of laying the eggs, it will become your responsibility to feed the hatchlings once they do arrive. Adult turtles aren’t very picky with what they eat, and will usually eat anything they can get their mouth around, but baby turtles can be very picky, and they will only eat meat at the beginning. It can be tricky to feed the hatchlings, getting them to eat the mealworms or other live insects that you have to start with. And if you have a lot, you have to carefully monitor to see that all of them are getting proper nutrition.
These are all things that you have to consider before even allowing your turtles to breed. Hatching turtles can be a wonderful experience for a family or an individual to experience, but won’t end well if you are not prepared. Baby turtles are a big responsibility, so you have to make sure that you are completely prepared before you bring them into your home.
Alan is a lover of animals and nature, especially turtles. One of the misleading turtle facts that Alan relates is that there are many turtle species, but there are no such things as mini turtles. It’s a myth. The term baby turtles is simply a young turtle.
Source
