Elizabeth spivey, age 7, of troy, ala., for her question:
What should I feed to my pet turtle?
Your little turtle needs meat and vegetables and maybe a helping of fruit for dessert. If you keep him in the right kind of home, he may live more than 20 years. He will get to know you in a friendly way, and chances are he will learn to take his food from your hand.
If you travel all over America, you could find more than 40 different types of turtles. Some spend most of their time in the water. Some spend most of their time on the dry land. Your dear little pet should have the kind of home that is just right for him. He needs a balanced diet of meat and vegetables and if you give him lots of different foods to sample, he will let you know which kinds he likes best.
Most of our American turtles make good pets, but not all of them. The bad¬tempeyed snapping turtle bites. The little mud turtle gives off a horrible smell. The turtle you buy in a pet shop is most likely a little slider turtle of greenish brown, maybe bordered with marks of red and yellow. The best one to keep as a pet is a chunky, brown box turtle. The prettiest one is the painted turtle. His eheerful marks of red and yellow are natural and not painted onto his skin and shell.
A painted turtle likes to live in the water. But do not keep him in a fish tank 'decause he will eat the fish. Give a slider or a painted turtle a tank of water with a stony island where he can dry off and bask in the sun. The painted turtle eats under water, so drop his food into his swimming pool. Put food for a slider turtle on his dry, sun bathing island.
The brown, humpy gopher turtle likes a box of dry dirt stt with a few shady little plants. He needs a dish of drinking water that is big enough to use as a bathtub. The same kind of home is just right for a wood turtle or a box turtle. The wood turtle has a skin of orange and yellow and his handsome shell looks like carved wood. The box turtle can shut his head and legs inside his boxy shell.
In the wild turtles eat such items as bugs and grubs, snails and worms along with tender greenery and juicy fruits. Your pet has tough jaws to bite and tear his food but he has no teeth. Vary his meat with morsels of raw hamburger and scraps of fish. He needs a daily helping of salad greens and now and then a fresh berry or slice of fruit. In winter add a drop of cod liver oil to his meat just to make surf that he has a well balanced diet to keep him healthy.
A box turtle or a wood turtle may make himself at home in your yard. You can fence off a home for him or let him roam. He can find most of his own food but once in a while he expects you to give him a tasty treat and he may nibble a dainty morsel of food from your fingers. Much of the time he stays out of sight but sometimes he waddles right into the house for a friendly visit.