Caring for Baby Snapping Turtles

If you've decided to adopt a baby snapping turtle, you've adopted a challenging pet. Within two years, your baby snapper will be about 7 inches long. He will keep growing until he weighs about 40 or 50 pounds, so you'll definitely need an outdoor enclosure eventually. However, baby snappers do well inside---until they get too big for an aquarium and too big for you to safely handle.

  1. Housing a Baby Snapping Turtle

    • Just as with any indoor turtle, baby snapping turtles need to be housed in glass aquariums to be happy. A glass aquarium provides protection for the turtle while allowing him to see what's going on around him. However, snappers have a few distinct requirements.

      Snapping turtles are active creatures and are likely to rearrange everything, so you shouldn't attempt to decorate your turtle's tank. Instead, they're perfectly happy with a bare glass bottom. Your turtle will need a place to hide within his tank, and a cave can be easily fashioned out of a small plastic pan, such as a dishpan or kitty litter box, turned upside-down. Just cut one of the sides off so your turtle can easily move in and out of the cave. Then place a heavy flat rock on top so your snapper won't rearrange it. In the wild, snappers like to bask on logs, so you can add a piece of wood and a basking light to your turtle's aquarium.

      Snapping turtles spend most of their time in the water, however, with their feet under and their nose out of the water. Make sure your snapping turtle's water is not so deep that he can't sit on the bottom of his tank with his head elevated out of the water. For the happiest turtle, keep the water at about 68 degrees (no hotter than 77 degrees) and well-filtered.

    Feeding a Baby Snapping Turtle

    • Your turtle is omnivorous, so you'll want to feed him a varied diet. A floating turtle food is a good basis for his diet, but add other foods like lettuce, strawberries, cooked squash and sweet potato, and live foods like mealworms. Try out different foods, being sure to cook any meats and thoroughly wash any produce.

      Feed your new hatchling at least once a day. Older snapping turtles may need food only three times a week. Monitor your turtle's appearance. If his skin starts looking baggy, feed him more often. If his skin looks tight and he bulges around his shell, feed him less often.

      To keep your turtle's tank clean, you can feed him in a plastic tub filled with water that's the same temperature as his home. As soon as he defecates, about an hour after feeding, you can move him back to his aquarium.