I had my very first pet turtle when I was a kid. It was a box turtle named Tank. I feed it fruit and vegetables and tried to make sure it was warm. It was well cared for, but, unfortunately, it disappeared into the woods one day while I was playing with it and continued to live in the wild after that.

Currently, my husband and I, have a pet box turtle named Lunch. Her favorite foods are June beetles, cooked (not smoked) turkey, and romaine lettuce. We have tried to feed her other things like fruit, but she is a picky eater and will only eat these foods. If she doesn’t have the food that she wants she will sit in front of her plate and stare at it until’ you give her the food that she wants and will not eat the other food.

Our pet turtle is about 30-years-old and is female. She enjoys climbing, bobbing her head to music, chasing after bugs, and is quite comfortable around people for a turtle. She has not tried to bit off anyone’s fingers like a lot of wild and snapping turtles will try to do.
Turtles are very smart and can do all kinds of things like climb fences and aid therapy sessions.

“Snapping Turtle Climbs A Fence”

The children in this video who were coping with divorce found the psychologist’s trained turtle in this video to be very helpful during their therapy sessions.

 “Sit, roll over, good turtle”

Lunch can move really fast while chasing a bug and is good at sneaking up on it and chomping it. She is middle aged for a 3-toed-box turtle. They usually live for an average of 50 years. Most people do not think of turtles as being fast, but they are.

“Super fast turtle”

One time, my husband brought home a huge, common black water beetle (There are some great insects over here.) to feed to her. She seemed really happy about it, but it was too big for her to fit into her mouth, so she kept biting at it and making crunching noises as she chewed on it with her toothless jaws. She is only about the size of a softball and the beetle was as big as her head so it is funny that she was trying to eat it, but scavengers will eat all kinds of things.  

Another fascinating kind of turtle is the sea turtle. Huge, graceful sea turtles are great to watch and they seem to love to eat pesky jellyfish. These magnificent creatures are said to be able to live for hundreds of years.

“Sea Turtle Attacks Man-o-war”

In some turtle families such as the European Pond Turtle, Emys orbcularis, nest temperature determines the sex of the hatchlings. Low temperatures during incubation produce males (below 30 degrees C) and high temperatures produce females (30-34 degrees C). Temperature can have great affects on animal’s biology.

Last but not least, the Alligator Snapping turtle looks like something out of a dinosaur movie. It is native to where I live in Louisiana and can live to be 50 to 100 years old. They are big turtles, can weigh over 220 pounds, and have no natural predators aside from humans.

This angry little Alligator Snapper is still cute even though it is charging the camera with its mouth wide open. Say Ahhh!

“Angry Alligator Snapping Turtle charging camera man to attack!!!”