Turtle Regrets

I got Adi a cute, green-shelled baby turtle over the weekend. And just so it wouldn't get lonely, decided to get a second one. I was wondering exactly what kind of turtles they were, so I turned to the net to find out what these cute lil' ones are. Yep, the tiny turtles with orange or red stripes on the sides of their heads.

And so the NIGHTMARE begins...

Apparently, the turtles I got are known as Sliders. And it seems that the tiny terrarium bowl the pet shop salesladies sold me is too small, that turtles don't really get lonely, and that putting two or more turtles together spells...

...well, check out the scary stuff at The Slider Home: How To Take Care of Your RES (Red-Eared Sliders).

After about a month or two, I'll probably donate or sell Franklin and Turquoise to some pet shop. Sorry Adi, but it looks like these pets are far from "low maintenance." I'm not ready to migrate from the simple bowl to the 20-gallon tank with filters and UV lights world.

Someone went that route and still ended up with a heartbreaking "Help! My turtle's dying..."

In the meantime: How To Take Care of Baby Turtles

(Moral Lesson: Don't buy pets without doing research first. Sigh...)

~~~ Trivia ~~~
Turtle in Tagalog is Pawikan (pa-WEE-kan)
In Bisaya it is Bao (ba-O)

[ First posted on 09/16/2002 by Manuel Viloria ]