Cleaning the Turtle Tank

Video Transcript

" Hi, my name is Sarah, I’m here at Pet Land in Pembroke Pines tonight, and on behalf of expertvillage.com, I’m going to speak with you a little bit purchasing and owning a pet turtle. Another consideration, when it comes to your turtle’s habitat is what substrate or what you are going to keep in the bottom of the aquarium. You do not necessarily need to have gravel in the aquatic half of your turtle’s enclosure. It tends to make it easier to clean your turtle’s closure, if you not have gravel because gravel tends to keep bacteria and fungus. If you do choose to have gravel in your turtle’s enclosure, you should make sure that the gravel that you use is of a sufficient size that your turtle cannot ingest it. We have seen turtles ingest gravel before and I have had to surgically remove it and as it became life-threatening to the turtle. The gravel can cause intestinal obstruction and impaction and will require surgical removal by a qualified reptile veterinarian. Cleaning your turtle’s enclosure requires a full disinfection of the entire enclosure. You do not want to just take out the water, wipe the tank out and put everything back. You want to completely breakdown your turtle’s environment, thoroughly clean the turtle’s enclosure with a soapy water or a diluted bleach, you can dilute bleach, one part bleach to 30 parts water and you want to rinse very, very well, no matter what you decide to use to clean your turtle’s enclosure. When you are cleaning your turtle’s enclosure, it’s also very important that you thoroughly clean any gravel or rocks or any cage furniture or any other materials that you will be putting back in the cage. 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 web site at www.petland.com. "