California Turtle & Tortoise Club

Wild Habits & Food

In the wild soft-shell turtles inhabit all types of waters and waterways, from streams and rivers to lakes ponds and sloughs. They spend most of their time in the water or buried in the substrate at the bottom. They burrow into the mud or sand and extend their long neck to the surface for air or ambush passing fish from hiding. They bask on the banks of their water homes but rarely if ever on logs, rocks or each other (unlike many of our harder shelled buddies!). They can move extremely quickly in water or on land. In fact, they are probably the fastest turtles on land. They eat just about anything you find in the water, including but not limited to: fish, snails, insects, amphibians, carrion, crayfish and some plant material. They lay from 4 to 33 hard spherical eggs, about 1"-1.2" in diameter, depending on size, species and range. Some larger adults have been found to exhibit greatly enlarged jaw surfaces perhaps indicating a preference for mollusks.

Captive Husbandry

If you plan to keep soft-shell turtles indoors, plan on a big aquarium and filter system, frequent water changes or filthy water! These guys are messy. They are active and strong enough to move most aquarium "furniture" and undermine anything and everything as they attempt to burrow into the substrate. They grow fairly quickly because they get most of the food in community settings. We have moved all of ours outside and they have flourished. Soft-shell turtles are very susceptible to shell rot and fungal infections on both plastron and carapace, especially in community settings indoors. Minor scratches turn into life threatening infections. If you buy a soft-shell turtle make sure its shell is flawless both top and bottom. Fighting the infections, once started, is very difficult and frustrating. Giving an injection to an unwilling soft-shell turtle redefines challenging. Prevention is the key here. We have found that sunshine, fresh air and space are the best preventatives. Wounds seem to heal themselves outdoors.

Soft-shell turtles can be very aggressive, and they sometimes bite each other and "unrelated" turtles spontaneously or when feeding. I have seen soft-shell turtles continue to kill fish long after they have stopped eating, and just let the dead fish rot. I have lost more skin hand feeding soft-shell turtles than any other turtle, (they have a very sharp ridge on their palate). We had a large female (about 13" diameter) that was causing so many injuries to other turtles we had to adopt her out to an owner with a less populated and larger pond. The other remedy for soft-shell disagreements is enough space for the less dominant ones to escape. Our current group of five (I think) get along reasonably well or have enough room (8,000 gallons in three interconnected ponds) to stay out of each others way. When we first moved them outside I worried that the concrete ponds would scratch their plastrons and that other turtle claws would scratch their carapaces. This simply hasn't happened, or they heal so fast outside in the "fresh" air I can't see it happening! They also appear to lift themselves up slightly before they launch themselves into the pond when frightened.

Our adult smooth soft shells have mated and laid in our yard the last two years. In 1995 we found only one hatchling (staring up at me from the grass) which we raised inside for one season and then adopted out. This past year we had four discovered by our son while he was weed whacking (only one casualty) and they were adopted out. Now that we now where she nests we might be able to bring future eggs inside for, hopefully, better results.

All of our outdoor aquatics get a mixed diet including: Purina trout chow, goldfish, fat-heads, imitation crab (by hand), and occasional Pacific Ocean fish that we catch but don't always eat, such as: bonito, barracuda, mackerel, kelp bass, sheephead and ocean white fish. There is always water hyacinth in the ponds and they do eat it at times. I have never seen ours more than 2' from the edge of the ponds while basking, but the nest site is somewhat further away.

Shortly after getting our first turtle, I saw a soft-shell turtle in a pet store and I was hooked (then I saw a picture of a Mata Mata and there was no turning back). They are very active and fun to watch in aquariums, but they really need a lot of room if you are going to keep one indoors or out.

Bibliography

Carr, Archie. 1952. Handbook of Turtles, New York. Cornell University Press.

Iverson, John B. 1992. A Revised Checklist with Distribution Maps of the Turtles of the World, Indiana.

Pritchard, P.C.H. 1979. Encyclopedia of Turtles, New Jersey. T.F.H. Publications, Inc. Ltd.

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Originally published in the Tortuga Gazette 33(6): 1-4, June 1997