Caring For Terrapins

 

Photograph of Terrapins, Opal and Oscar, swimming in the water

When I was young, I wanted to keep chicken so much.  I cried and my mother bought them for me in the end.  I care for the chicken totally by myself -- putting them in boxes, lining the boxes with newspaper, changing them as and when dirty, giving them food and playing with them.  I had tortoises, which my mother helped to feed and change the water.  

In my home, the tortoises or terrapins belong to Isaac.  I did not do anything for him.  I left everything for him to do.  He followed the instructions given by the shopkeeper, putting the water level at its minimum at the fourth staircase of the tank.  It was so little and the tortoise was not able to swim.  I remembered mine was submerged in water and the tortoise was able to swim.  Mine grew so big and ate a lot of food.  My mum helped to feed it with live prawns (cut into small pieces) and they love it.  Sometimes the terrapins will eat kang kong (vegetable) as well.  In my preschool, they feed the terrapin cabbage at times.  

For a about a week the terrapins live in shallow water until one day Clara helped to put in seashells and a big rock and asked Isaac to put in more water.  They changed the water on that day.  The shopkeeper suggested to change the water every 2 days.  However we see that the water was not dirty at all.  So the water was changed about a week ago.  Now that the water level was higher now, the terrapins are able to swim in it.  

The children were scared that the terrapins will get drown.  They even searched for answers on the web.  But based on my experience, my terrapins were covered with water, so high.  They were placed in a round basin at that time, something that the house has and we did not even go to the pet shop to buy.  It was a very big basin and the water level was very high so that the tortoise can swim.  So the tortoise did not drown!  

As seen in the photograph below, you can see a rock.  The children placed a big rock in the water and the tortoise was able to swim, and able to rest on the rock too.  

Photograph to show the water level that is covering the terrapins

As for food, buy the XO Turtle Sticks as shown below: 

Photograph showing XO Turtle food sticks for the terrapins to eat

One last thing, remember to add in Ammonia Detox for the water.  Follow instructions on the bottle -- mix a drop of Ammonia Detox to one litre of water.  

 

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