Good evening friends, I hope you are fit and fine in this Covid situation. Today, I thought of writing something very interesting on pets which shall entertain you and everyone else in this hobby. I am sharing my personal experience on how to keep a Snapping Turtle inside the house.
First of all, this species of turtle is very large among the aquatic species list. They are mainly two types: Alligator Snapping & Common Snapping Turtle.
You need a big aquarium; at least 4-5 ft long for an adult Common Snapping turtle and at least 10 ft space for an Alligator Snapping turtle.
When juvenile, they both look the same at around 1-2 inches size. They can only be distinguished when they reach a size of around 4 inches.
Here is a video where you can clearly see the difference between the species.
You normally do not need a UVB light setup to keep them inside your house. You only need to take them outside in the sun at around mid-day 2-3 times in a week to give them the required UVB light directly from the sun. They normally absorb the necessary calcium from high calcium based foods and small fishes.
You have to handle them very carefully as their bite is very powerful and can hurt you severely very easily.
They need a very good filtration system as they produce lots of waste which in turn gets converted to ammonia and degrades water quality.
Snapping turtles are easily available in India as this is not an Indian native species and you can keep it without any legal issue. However, rules are always changing and you should always always refer to the latest guidelines from the official Government website before you make a purchase.
I hope you liked the article. Share your comments below and let me know your thoughts.