Handling Pet Turtles

Video Transcript

"The last thing we're going to talk about is just general handling and paying attention to your turtle. As you can see generally for most species of turtles that you're going to buy commercially, they are going to be relatively well behaved. Radio sliders are known for their easy going dispositions so, as you can see I can handle him like this. I like to keep both hands on him. Turtles are strong and if he did decide to push himself out of my grip I want to make sure that I've got both hands on him. If he was a aggressive turtle, if he was trying to bite me, you're going to want to handle him like this basically at the back end of the shell that way he can't get you. His head can not reach back there. Do not under any circumstances try to handle a turtle by the tail like you see some foolish people try to hold snapping turtles. That is very painful and dangerous for the turtle and unnecessary. If you simply handle them from the back here, or if it was a very large turtle like say a very large aggressive snapping turtle, you can also take your fingers, imagine this guy was twenty times the size he is, you can actually hold under the lip of the front of the shell just above the head. They can't get you. They can't bite you from there. Snapping turtles can't anyways. So again, if it's aggressive hold him from the back like this. If he's not aggressive and being timid just like this guy is, you know, just make sure you've got a good grip on him. Don't squeeze him too hard or anything, but just keep a good grip on him. You can also hold him like that if you really feel it's necessary, but always make sure you've got that other hand around just in case problems arise. You don't want to drop him and cause any problems."