General Turtle Information

Our General Turtle information section provides a broad range of turtle care topics. If you are interested in more specific info regarding a specific species be sure to browse through our turtle care sheets.

Determining the Age of your Turtle

Like humans, mammals, fish and all creatures, different turtles live to different ages. Turtles in the wild will live different lengths than turtles in captivity. The care you give you turtle will also play a large role in their longevity.

The average lifespan of a turtle is 50 - 80 years. Box turtles can reach 100 years of age, but this is fairly rare. There have been cases of tortoises reaching 300 years of age, but again this is incredibly rare. Keep this in mind when buying a turtle as you will have to provide care for it for many years to come. Most turtle owners do not realize this when they buy one.

With the safety of captive care and living, a turtle will generally live longer lives than their cousins in the wild. Predators, natural disasters, and random conditions that can not be controlled kill off thousands of turtles each year.

It is near impossible to tell the age of a turtle. The lines on their shells, unlike trees, do not paint an accurate picture of age. These lines are however useful in obtaining an estimate of how old the turtle may be. The older it gets though the less accurate it becomes as layers of the carapace will fall off over time.

All in all, turtles live for a very long time. In many cases, if you decide to buy a turtle as a pet, you are buying a pet for life. So be ready, be prepared, and give your turtle the long, healthy, and happy life it deserves.

Foods to Avoid for Turtles

Although many people feed their turtles lettuce and celery it has little or no nutritional value that will benefit your turtle. Dark, leafy greens are usually the best option for turtles. Tortoises that are allowed to graze outdoors and forage for their own food will likely receive the best diet. Keep in mind that all species of turtles have their own requirements for food so be sure to review our turtle care sheets first.

Avoid feeding your turtle any food which has a high level of salt. Most food that is available in the supermarket is too high in salt for turtles.

Any food that is too high in fat. This includes canned dog and cat food. Hamburger meat and ground beef in general is also too high in fat content for your turtle. Feeding your turtle these types of food can quickly lead to the turtle gaining excess weight.

Rhubarb and spinach is very high in oxalic acids. This prevents proper calcium absorbtion which can lead to bone disease in your turtle. There is nothing wrong with feeding your turtles these items in small quantities just do not make it a primary part of their diet. You can read more about this and other turtle diseases in our health section.