Snapping Turtle Guide

Snapping turtle is a prehistoric and ancestors of almost 80 percent of turtles nowadays. Snapping turtles are like any other ectotherms reptiles. They do not produce their own body heat instead attract warmth from the environment. Just like any reptiles, they lay eggs. New lay eggs sex depends on the temperature which they are incubated.

Snapping turtles came from the family Chelydrida. Snapping turtle subspecies are Alligator, Common, Florida, Mexican  and Northern Common.




An adult female snapping turtle can grow about from 9.5 to 14.5 inches and an adult male can grow about from 9.5 to 15.5 inches while hatchling snapping turtles are a size of a quarter. Their growth is affected by its aging. They tend to grow slower when they aged. To know the snapping turtles age, count their ring on the shell.

Snapping turtle can grow big than a pet keeper can managed since they continue to grow  through their life span. Some snapping turtles are turned over in the zoo if its get too big.


Snapping turtles are aggressive creature especially if threatened though they can be a pet with proper knowledge and handling. They have a prehistoric dinosaur appearance making it look different compared to other turtles. One of the characteristics that differ them from other turtles beside their appearance is they can’t hide inside their shells but they got better mobility on land compared to other turtles.

A snapping turtle head is triangular and has a large mouth with sharp jaw. The tail is long with spines same as the neck but with no spine of course. While snapping turtles four legs is short and massive with curved scale and have 5 claws in each of their front feet on 4 each in their hind feet. Snapping turtles tend to walk, crawl or bounce under the shallow water.

Snapping turtle will eat anything including its own specie that’s how aggressive they are sometimes so keeping too many in a pond is not advisable. They are omnivorous in nature and be feed a wide variety of food such as fish, crayfish, worms and others.

Snapping turtle spend most of their time in the water and only comes out to sun their selves. Have high environment adaptability and can live in moving on moving body of water even polluted sewer system. Hatchlings and juveniles snapping turtles live in small streams and shallow water. They tend to get drowned if the water is to depth.

While snapping turtle as pet, you need to have an outdoor pond or indoor pond if you have a spacious house cause you will need a large tub with filtration system. For common snapping turtles you will need to add bask or floating aquatic plants as common snapping turtle loves dry land as well.

Snapping turtle don’t like to be cuddled or held all the time. You might get injured (bitten fingers the worst I've known).

There are no known ailments of these species living in the wild so far but if you have one in captivation, the problem you might deal with is obesity and injury from fighting to other snapping turtle or specie. Snapping turtle with overweight problem tend to have other illness that affects liver and other internal organs. So don’t feed your snapping turtle too much.

There are other species of turtles that are more advisable as pets. If you are looking for pet turtles you have a lot of choices such as Box turtles and Painted turtles are the most favored as pet. Or you could try tortoise.

Posted in: Snapping turtle on Tuesday, March 2, 2010 at at 7:13 PM 0 comments