Greetings! The past couple of years while traveling with my husband, we’ve come across turtles being cared for either at resorts or at wineries. I didn’t realize until becoming a THS sitter that people kept turtles or tortoises as pets. I’m very intrigued and wonder how other sitters find caring for them. If you’ve had experience as a sitter or even as an owner, could you share your experience? I imagine it could be quite soothing somehow to care for them.
I’ve heard of a hard sell, but this is more of a hard shell.. I’d love to look after turtles too!
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My son brought this guy home around 15 years ago. The first few months we had him, I didn’t notice much personality, but after his first hibernation, he warmed up to us and became quite the character. He is very sociable, he greets me at the back door every morning and follows us and the dogs around the yard. This picture was taken a few years ago, he now weighs around 70lbs.
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We have cared for tortoises - 6 in total, along with 4 dogs, a cat and about a dozen chickens. It was quite the menagerie!!!
The tortoises were a joy to care for. They don’t need much, but do become quite friendly. They loved banana and would eat it out of our hands. Quite the interesting personalities.
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I cared for turtles on a sit in Singapore. TBH I found the conditions there were being kept in unsatisfactory and sad (although v typical in Asia) - a small plastic pond with very little shade. Turtles are highly territorial, especially over food and some of the smaller ones often had bloody gashes from fighting for resources. They were being kept on a balcony and their area was also quite smelly although I did my best to change the water regularly.
In short I wouldn’t accept sitting for them again unless I was happy they had a good environment. I definitely didn’t find it soothing to care for them.
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We have lucky the tortoise, bean the frog, and Oscar the cockatiel to care for an upcoming sit in France. Discussed feeding and care is super easy if you dont mind feeding the frog live crickets. I’ll let you know how it goes.
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@Brightlight yes let us know! All very interesting. We had a large frog in our pool yesterday that I had a difficult time getting ahold of (and 1 dead mouse). I’m much less squimish now living in a country setting.
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I’ve cared for several turtles - 1 trio, 1 quartet, and a tortoise, too.
The trio of red-eared were in large individual ‘tanks’ in a northern Virginia DC suburb. All about the same size shells about 6 inches in diameter. Once a day I dropped a few pellets into each tank and put a leaf of romaine lettuce on a rock above water in the tank. 2 or the 3 would come over to the edge of the tanks whenever I came near. The pet parent tells me that they are now in 1 large tank.
In Tulsa, Oklahoma I sat a quartet of red-eared sliders who shared a tank. They varied in size from about 4 to 9 inches in diameter - sort of like Russian matryoshka stacking dolls. And they behave a bit like matryoshka dolls, climbing on top of each other. And then I’d hear a loud crash as the stack would tumble.
Sat a tortoise named Myrtle in Tucson, AZ. In the heat of August and she lived in a fenced-off part of the shaded outdoor patio. I didn’t see her move much over 2 weeks but wheneve a red hibiscus flower bloomed I took it off the plant and put it near her. It would be gone in a few hours.
Not a pet sit but a bale of turtles hanging out in Ueno Park in Tokyo.
And a statue of a turtle in Hanoi.
And a turtle burial urn at the Zymoglypic Museum in Portland, OR. The Zymoglyphic Museum
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I had a turtle on one sit. You may not be surprised to learn there’s not a whole lot of “caring” involved, mainly not letting it get too cold.
I did get a kick out of it eating some vegetables from my hand.
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I sat for a baby tortoise last Christmas - he had a heat lamp and all I had to do was feed him and dip him in a shallow dish of water (yes, tortoise not turtle). I have to admit to thinking “why?” have a tortoise.
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@villeyvince I’m not sure what kind of turtles they were; we were in Turkey and Spain and we didn’t take photos (at the request of management). But if we came across a turtle that got outside of its habitat area, we were allowed to pick them up and return them. The shells were 8 - 10”.
I hope in the future to widen my sitting to include them.
Tortoises need specific care, and like @BJane I’d be apprehensive to care for certain species as the risk of poor animal welfare is indeed present. I wouldn’t like taking part in poor animal welfare and I don’t apply if that seems to be the case.
The natural behavior of a tortoise is to roam - they can roam up to 4 km (!) regularly and need extensive space. That is also because they need to self-regulate body temperature and need specific sones of warmer and cooler temps.
The Tortoise trust say that any vivarium should be a temporary place only and that tortoises shouldn’t be kept indoor only (and species shouldn’t be mixed as they can have very different requirements regarding heating and humidity).
TBH one of tomis photos was concerning, but maybe they had additional space.
So yeah. Keeping a tortoise in an aquarium is not good.
Before THS we took care of a rabbit while home exchanging. It was alone in a cage indoor, and lacked both companionship and space as needed for rabbit welfare. Really sad. He was grumpy, which I fully understand.
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That is really sad. One of the few things I was ‘worried’ about when I joined THS was that I would encounter animal welfare issues with the animals I sat for (poor health care, leaving them alone for long periods etc) because I find situations like that really upsetting.
Fortunately the ‘turtle’ sit has been the only one that this has been an issue out of the 30+ sits I’ve done. I also felt the dog at the ‘Turtle sit’ was poorly cared for (left for long hours alone in an apartment while they worked and clearly rarely walked). It’s definitely something I’m more mindful of now when I do video calls prior to accepting sits.
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I’m hoping I don’t encounter anything along the lines of poor care/treatment of pets. It would be heartbreaking.
Meanwhile I’ll be looking for a sit with turtles in the future 
. Happy pet sitting everyone!
This is a worry for me too. Thankfully I’ve not encountered it, but I do wonder if some pet owners forget they are entrusted with the care of animals who, like us, have needs and feelings which don’t switch off when the owner isn’t around. My neighbours, for example, are convinced that their dog doesn’t howl when they are not there. Maybe a Furby would be better for these people.
The tortoise we will care for is outside in a large enclosure, I believe. So hopefully, a happy tale.
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@Garfield
The tortoise in Tucson had an area about 400 sq ft for wandering - partially the synthetic turf that you see but also dirt in the garden and real grass, partially full shade and some mixed shade and sun depending on time of day.
Myrtle lived with these folks for about 10 years, I think.
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