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My girlfriend just bought me two baby turtles from LA's Chinatown...

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Karish

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As soon as I saw them in the little plastic container with water my heart sank. She knows I like turtles, she wanted to make me happy, but seeing them like that made me feel terrible for them.

Then I saw this: http://www.ladowntownnews.com/news/...cle_3c03d034-0c4d-11e3-9cf7-0019bb2963f4.html

Then I read if they're born into captivity they can't survive in the wild.

What do I do GAF? Is having pet turtles at all ethical? Is keeping these guys from Chinatown even safe?
 
My bud had a pet turtle. Theyre resilient. Move them to a ten gallon tank. When they grow out of that, move them into a thirty gallon.
 
Just put them in a tank, get a good filter for it. They're pretty hardy.
 
Consider giving them away to a family who wants them? I'm not joking when I say the new TMNT movie coming out might give kids the urge to own a turtle.

See if you can Craigslist them to someone.
 
Nothing unethical about pet turtles, plenty of legitimate pet stores sell for them and provide for their care. Just get them a decently sized environment and buckle in — I hear they live forever.
 
Iksenpets said:
Nothing unethical about pet turtles, plenty of legitimate pet stores sell for them and provide for their care. Just get them a decently sized environment and buckle in — I hear they live forever.
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I think my parents bought 2 of those turtles for me and my sisters when i was around 6 years old or so. One of them is still alive and i am now 31 years old.

Do the math.

I feel so bad for it in the tank. I cant let it go or anything cause i know im sending it to its death, but the alternative is being stuck in that tank for however long it continues to live.
 
Your next move should be getting 2 more baby turtles and a rat
 
I'm in this exact boat except I was the patsy that took them so my friend wouldn't release them into the wild. I've now had them for five years. I feel bad because I don't do much for them, but I wasn't going to let her throw them to their death.
 
If I go to Chinatown can I get a red panda for a pet?

Fuck the police, I'll go into hiding with my red panda bro

9SBK2d2.jpg
 
Just keep them but if you don't want them see if you can find someone who does.

I got 2 newts from someone's parents who went off to college and left them behind in 4th grade. 1 died 3 years ago when it caught something and the other one is still trying to "bite" me and quite healthy. It is now 21 years old.

I sort of wish I could find the family I got them from to surprise them that one is still alive even after I've gotten my BS degree.
 
Karish said:
Then I read if they're born into captivity they can't survive in the wild.

What do I do GAF? Is having pet turtles at all ethical? Is keeping these guys from Chinatown even safe?
Click to expand...

Welcome to owning any pet, none of them can practically survive in the wild no matter the animal if they have been in captivity and taken care of without the need of their instinctual skills.

Have fun with the turtles, keep them away(or expose to) ooze if necessary.
 
When I was a kid, I got two illegal red eared sliders. They need a tank of water with a little island because they shouldn't be in water all the time. One of mine drowned because it got stuck behind the filter pipe, so be mindful of that. :(

They grow to fit the tank from what I understand. Like, if you put them in a big pond they can get very large, but if you keep them in a 10-30 gallon tank they do alright. They are easy and entertaining pets. They just eat flakes like fish, but when they get larger I think you feed them little goldfish.

I would look at it as if they were rescues. At least you can provide them a decent life and who knows where they would have ended up otherwise.

When the remaining turtle I had got larger, we found a lady who had a pond with other sliders and she just kept it there.

The Santa Anita mall has a pond with a bunch of sliders in it. I always wonder if people just abandon there's there with the others.

Edit: Apparently the thing about them growing is a myth, which makes sense because even though we kept it in a 10 gallon tank, my mom ended up giving it to someone with a pond (bigger enclosure) so it could be comfortable.
 
People who buy pets for other people are absolute scum. Hey, you can spend half your life caring for this thing you don't exactly want or kill it, your choice.

I don't know if there is any good way to break it to your GF that this was absolutely not okay and a highly stupid thing to do but try your best.

This is essentially how my parents ended up with a turtle. One of my sister's college roomates bought 4 turtles for another roommate for her birthday. Well, the illegal Chinese turtles were not supposed to be sold at a young age and 2 died fairly quickly. The other one eventually died when the roomate who received them got bored and basically stopped caring for them (feeding and cleaning tanks is something that needs to be done but it takes time and effort). Note that a 3rd roommate also got turtles from the same place and never got a sun-lamp so their shells turned to goo and they all died. My sister felt bad and took the remaining one but even she couldn't find the time to care for it so she left it with my parents. Luckily my dad took a liking to it and they've been caring for it ever since and have bought a couple hundred dollars in aquarium stuff to do so. This was 6 years ago. Also note turtles live a long time, like 30+ years, meaning it's likely they may not even be able to care for it at some point in the future. Also, the type of turtle, red-eared sliders, are a super invasive species that have proliferated mainly because stupid people buy them, can't take care of them and release them causing huge amounts of destruction to local ecosystems.
 
PLEASE have an object that they can sit/rest on above/outside of the water. So many times I see people have small turtles with no place to rest and the turtles have to constantly fight to stay afloat. They are not made to be swimming 24 hours a day. They need a place outside of the water so they can rest and sleep.
 
Turtles are awesome, but really messing. The internet says "The general rule of thumb demands that you provide 10 gallons of habitat for every inch of shell length. Your 4-inch turtle will need, at the absolute minimum, a 40 gallon aquarium--not the convenient 20 gallon tank the salesperson tries to push on you." So have fun with that.

Get cool setup going like this dude.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmpeEBhCdR4&feature=g-upl&context=G21707cdAUAAAAAAAQAA
 
My sister use to get a new turtle nearly every week as none ever lived past a few days, so like clockwork she would get new one every Friday or so. They were only like $5 or something. Now that I look back I wonder if she was killing them to get a new one as she was sort of devious and the first to stick toothpicks into any of our fishes that died.
 
Somnid said:
People who buy pets for other people are absolute scum. Hey, you can spend half your life caring for this thing you don't exactly want or kill it, your choice.
roliferated mainly because stupid people buy them, can't take care of them and release them causing huge amounts of destruction to local ecosystems.
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hey, thats going too far people make mistakes, im sure his GF just didnt thought of the consecuences at the time but surely they can come up with a solution without insulting eah other.
 
LQX said:
My sister use to get a new turtle nearly every week as none ever lived past a few days, so like clockwork she would get new one every Friday or so. They were only like $5 or something. Now that I look back I wonder if she was killing them to get a new one as she was sort of devious and the first to stick toothpicks into any of our fishes that died.
Click to expand...
😐
 
i am unagi said:
They grow to fit the tank from what I understand.
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Unfortunately this, like with fish, is a common myth. They may stay stunted because of poor nutrition or whatnot, but if taken care of properly, they will outgrow their tank. You should give them 10 gallons for every inch of shell (per turtle).
 
LQX said:
My sister use to get a new turtle nearly every week as none ever lived past a few days, so like clockwork she would get new one every Friday or so. They were only like $5 or something. Now that I look back I wonder if she was killing them to get a new one as she was sort of devious and the first to stick toothpicks into any of our fishes that died.
Click to expand...

she sounds like the girl in Nemo O.o
 
LQX said:
My sister use to get a new turtle nearly every week as none ever lived past a few days, so like clockwork she would get new one every Friday or so. They were only like $5 or something. Now that I look back I wonder if she was killing them to get a new one as she was sort of devious and the first to stick toothpicks into any of our fishes that died.
Click to expand...

Holy shit.
 
Yeah, kind of sketchy. I would check with animal experts whether it's illegal and how turtles are raised as pets or even if they should be.
 
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