Identifying a Healthy Turtle

"Hi, my name is Sarah, I am here at Pet Land in Pembroke Pines tonight, and on behalf of expertvillage.com, I’m going to speak with you a little bit about purchasing and owning a pet turtle. When you are looking to adopt or purchase a turtle, there are several things to watch out for to make sure that you get a healthy turtle. You want to make sure that your turtle is bright, alert and responsive. You want to make sure that your turtle’s shell looks proportional to the rest of its body. In older turtles, sometimes malnutrition can cause the turtle to outgrow its shell, and you’ll have a turtle that looks too big for its shell. In smaller turtles, you want to make sure that the scales on the shell look healthy and that you don’t see any peeling or discoloration. You want to make sure that if you handle the turtle and you touch the feet that the turtle tries to retract its feet—a turtle that does not try to retract its feet or head when being handled, generally is not a very healthy specimen, because they are failing to try to protect themselves. One more thing you want to watch out for, to make sure that the turtle that you are purchasing is healthy, is watch out for any lumps or bumps. You want to look at all the limbs as thoroughly as you can and then make sure, you don’t see any swelling; make sure that all the limbs feel normal. You also want to check for any lumps on the side of the head: that could indicate infection. Other things to watch out for are any cuts, scratches or abrasions on the shell or skin of the turtle. You want to make sure that you listen to the turtle as best you can to make sure you don’t hear any clicking or wheezing noises, I mean clicking or wheezing noises can be indicative of a respiratory infection. Other things that you want to look at are the conditions that the turtles are living in. You want to make sure that they are in a nice clean pond or aquarium; you want to try to choose your turtle from a pet store that seems knowledgeable about them. You want to ask a lot of questions to the staff, and then make sure that they are knowledgeable about turtle care. Just to make sure that if you ever have any questions, you can give them a call and then ask them or they can properly direct you to a reptile veterinarian. On behalf of expertvillage.com, I would like to thank you for letting me speak to you about your pet turtle. If you would like more information on the hospital that I work at, you may visit our web site at www.extracareanimalhospital.net. If you would like more information on Pet Land in Pembroke Pines, you may visit their website at www.petland.com."