how do i know if my turtle is a sea turtle or a land turtle?

Question

my turtle is small & brown looking, In a span of one year the turtle grow very little & we have it stayed in the pond all day & night. We don't know how to feed it, once in a while we throw fish & chicken and the turtle eat them

turtle was given to us a year ago by a Filipino friend, sad it was found by a boy near the manila bay. turtle is small & brown looking, in 1 whole year it stayed in our pond, we seldom feed the turtle, sometimes we throw fried fish & chicken & the turtle eat them. Our turtle grows slowly. We dont know to take care of the turtle,but we cant just throw it out. How do we know what is the right thing to treat the turltle?

Answer 1

To identify your turtle, try the World of Turtles gallery at http://www.austinsturtlepage.com

For a quick fix, look at the legs...

True sea turtles have front legs that look like flippers, and low, streamlined shells.

Turtles that live in fresh water (but that may come out to bask or to find new territories) usually have webbed feet. In general, the bigger the webbing, the more aquatic the species.

Turtles that live mostly on land or shallow waters (like bogs) generally do not have webbed feet in front or back.

True tortoises- totally land species- can be easily identified by elephant-like front legs that end in stumps.

The first step to proper care for an animal is to know what it is. Try the link above or post phots we can look at to see if we can help further.

Answer 2

Turtle On Land

Answer 3

The differences between aquatic freshwater turtles and tortoises include:
Turtles mainly live/swim in the water, coming out to bask/dry out their shells, while tortoises live on land and like to soak in shallow water, but they don't swim!

Turtles have webbed feet, and large back feet to help propel them around, tortoises have regular feet that are hard and scaly to help them walk across land.

Turtles have more streamlined, flatter shells, while tortoises have high domed shells.

Turtles can hold their breath under water for long periods of time, torties don't.

Turtles will eat both plant and animal matter, tortoises are mainly herbivorous.

SEA turtles are different still. they live in the ocean (salt water) and have flippers instead of feet. you'd know if you had one of these, and you would also be in danger of greats amount of trouble seeing as every sea turtle is highly protected and it is illegal to own them. I am assuming you have a freshwater turtle, though. You should really do research online, or in books, etc. on basic turtle care seeing as you don't know anything about them. you can probably find out what kind of turtle you have by doing this, also. i actually had experience with this in the beginning of my turtle owning. i bought a turtle at a pet shop that was labeled as a mud turtle, and one day i found a picture of him in a book and learned that he was actually an asian species called a Reeve's Turtle. Doing the research can really help you out. Good luck with your turt! They are fun and interesting pets.

Answer 4

Sea turtles the one that swim around in the ocean, grow up to be really huge! Size of a car tire or so. I think the turtle can eat carrots and other veggies, seen turtles fed apple chunks too. Just cut down to bite size for him/her to eat.

Given him/her a name yet?

Answer 5

land turltles grow to be VERY large and have huge diamond shapes on there back. also, land turtles usually prefer hot air most of the time.

Answer 6

(water) turtles have sleek shells and wet looking skin.
tortoises (land turtles) have bumpy shells and look too dry.

it will probably grow more if you give it a bigger tank.
:)

you could also try looking up picture of turtles & tortoises on google and match up pictures with your own little turtle.

Answer 7

get turtle food from a pet store, they should eat specific turtle food that gives them calcium and other nutrients. if its a sea turtle it will have webbed feet, a land turtle wont.

Answer 8

Look at its feet, if the feet resembles an elephant's feet then it's a land turtle.

Answer 9

Why don't you ask this question to your turtle? He can tell you better than anybody else.