Turtles and Tortoises
Turtles and tortoises are among the longest-lived animals you can keep as pets. Many tortoise species routinely reach 50 to 80 years in captivity, and some aquatic turtles live well beyond 30 years. Bringing one home is genuinely a multi-decade commitment — one that many keepers find deeply rewarding, but one that deserves serious thought before you begin.
Despite being grouped together, turtles and tortoises have very different care requirements. Aquatic and semi-aquatic turtles — like the popular red-eared slider, yellow-bellied slider, and painted turtle — need spacious tanks with powerful filtration, a basking area with UVB lighting, and a diet that includes aquatic plants, pellets, and occasional live prey. Tortoises, by contrast, are fully terrestrial, require outdoor enclosures or very large indoor setups as adults, and eat an almost entirely plant-based diet.
Both groups share a few universal requirements. UVB lighting is essential for calcium metabolism in species that don’t have access to natural sunlight. A proper temperature gradient allows them to thermoregulate. Clean water is critical — aquatic turtles are messy feeders and their tanks need filtration sized for roughly double the actual tank volume.
Shell health is one of the most important indicators of overall wellbeing in both turtles and tortoises. Shell rot, pyramiding in tortoises, and soft shells are all signs that something is off with the husbandry — usually humidity, diet, or calcium supplementation. Our health guides cover how to identify and address all of these issues.
Whether you’re drawn to the elegant simplicity of a musk turtle setup, the sheer scale of keeping a sulcata tortoise, or the planted aquascape of a turtle pond, our guides will help you get it right from the start.
