Death Bowls

[Yellow Turtle01]

I just learned about turtle death bowls a few months ago, and I was simply shocked. I understand that death bowls were popular when RES were a dime at the local store, and the majority died before their first birthday and care then was NOT GREAT, even for torts... but I just need to ask, did NO ONE NOTICE they turtles died soon after being housed in these things?? Didn't someone starch their head and think, 'Huh, maybe something's wrong??'
Anyway, found this picture-

- and I thought it summed these up pretty well.

 

[AmRoKo]

Unfortunately nobody cared, because RES were so cheap they were and sometimes still are seen as a "disposable pet" and were/are just meant to entertain children for awhile.

I don't think any pet is disposable, some people think it's crazy that I spent so much on my hamster for surgery and checkups afterwords but I love my animals.

 

[Maggie Cummings]

We were also sold dried ants for the turtle to eat. Cold water, no UVB, no heat...no wonder they died...

 

[Anthony P]

These are still used today, more often than you might realize.

 

[mike taylor]

Its a money maker . Thats it! Red ears are the easiest turtles you can keep . If you just make them an outside pond .

 

[Yellow Turtle01]

These are still used today, more often than you might realize.

Wow, I did not know that. Who sells these?? Obviously something's wrong with them!

 

[Yellow Turtle01]

We were also sold dried ants for the turtle to eat. Cold water, no UVB, no heat...no wonder they died...

 

[jeffjeff]

sorry for the ignorance but whats a death bowl? never heard of them.

 

[Abdulla6169]

Wow, I did not know that. Who sells these?? Obviously something's wrong with them!

Pet stores here do that. No one realized that they cause turtles to die. The pet stores know nothing about them

 

[tglazie]

A death bowl is a little plastic cheap bowl of death with a raised center and a plastic palm tree atop that center that is sold as "ideal" housing for baby red eared sliders. I had one when I was six years old, it came with the red eared sliders my father had bought in Korea. Back then, I think he spent ten bucks for the two sliders and the setup.

T.G.

 

[jeffjeff]

A death bowl is a little plastic cheap bowl of death with a raised center and a plastic palm tree atop that center that is sold as "ideal" housing for baby red eared sliders. I had one when I was six years old, it came with the red eared sliders my father had bought in Korea. Back then, I think he spent ten bucks for the two sliders and the setup.

T.G.

thankyou. no need to ask how they got the name death bowl the poor things.

 

[tglazie]

But yeah, I've even seen these for sale at PetCo and Petsmart, up until just a few years ago. And you still see them at any number of smaller scale pet stores. This is a problem with petshops in general. They want to sell a complete package for their herps but price the thing so that the gullible customer will buy it. Trouble is that you can't really sell an enclosure for a water turtle that will grow to over a foot in length without telling the customer that their ten, fifteen, twenty dollar turtle is going to require a five hundred dollar giant tank, a fifteen dollar screen top, a twenty dollar light fixture, a thirty dollar mercury vapor bulb, a two hundred to four hundred dollar power filter... you get the picture. But Mike is right. Setup is easy if you can set up an outdoor pond with a bio filter. But that's pretty expensive, too.

T.G.

 

[Yellow Turtle01]

Pet stores here do that. No one realized that they cause turtles to die. The pet stores know nothing about them

Wow. I've actually never seen anyone who has a turtle 'housed' in one, nor at any stores... but you're right, petstores are just making money, they don't care (or really know) about the animals in question...

 

[Jacqui]

Some where around here, I still have mine from all those years ago (like 50). My palm tree broke off at some point. I did see one like it only smaller a couple of years ago at a pet store in MO and was shocked to see it. In those days we just didn't realize what those sweet little turtles needed. They started off selling us the dried ants, then we read to feed them iceburg lettuce and even raw hamburger. Yes he was my first turtle and he went blind and then died way too soon, but he also started my interest in these unique critters. Our knowledge of their needs has increased so much, but we still have so much to learn.

 

[Maggie Cummings]

Some where around here, I still have mine from all those years ago (like 50). My palm tree broke off at some point. I did see one like it only smaller a couple of years ago at a pet store in MO and was shocked to see it. In those days we just didn't realize what those sweet little turtles needed. They started off selling us the dried ants, then we read to feed them iceburg lettuce and even raw hamburger. Yes he was my first turtle and he went blind and then died way too soon, but he also started my interest in these unique critters. Our knowledge of their needs has increased so much, but we still have so much to learn.

That's right, I'd forgotten about the raw hamburger that turned a funny kind of whitish in the water.
Yuck. I love RES. I've had several and my last one, named Scruffie, a big nasty mean dog chewed rescue went to live in my sister's pond a few years ago. Scruffie was living in a 500 gallon black rubber thing in my carport shed, never to be in the sun. I think 5 years or so had I tried moving her outside daily and it just freaked her out. I think I had her for 10 or 11 years, I really liked her...except she was so mean that even after all those years given the chance she would have bitten my hand off at the elbow. They are like Sulcata with a big personality...great turtles. They're illegal to keep in Oregon.

 

[Jacqui]

I just recall my Mom crying because she knew our hatchling was starving to death and she did not know what to do for it. I don't remember, but my guess is that it also had a soft shell. We kept it where we thought it was getting sunshine, but of course in those days we didn't realize that the window glass would be blocking the needed UVB rays. I think because of those failures is one reason even today I really do not like having hatchling turtles/tortoises under my care.

I have several adults RES here currently (all are females so no hatchlings in the making). I enjoy watching them bask and swim.

 

[Maggie Cummings]

With the exception of Bob, I'd rather have hatchlings. They're cuter and more of a challenging. Yvonne says I'm real good with babies. Probably because I'm a bit obsessive...

 

[Yellow Turtle01]

With the exception of Bob, I'd rather have hatchlings. They're cuter and more of a challenging. Yvonne says I'm real good with babies. Probably because I'm a bit obsessive...

It's good to be obsessive.

 

[AmRoKo]

That's right, I'd forgotten about the raw hamburger that turned a funny kind of whitish in the water.
Yuck. I love RES. I've had several and my last one, named Scruffie, a big nasty mean dog chewed rescue went to live in my sister's pond a few years ago. Scruffie was living in a 500 gallon black rubber thing in my carport shed, never to be in the sun. I think 5 years or so had I tried moving her outside daily and it just freaked her out. I think I had her for 10 or 11 years, I really liked her...except she was so mean that even after all those years given the chance she would have bitten my hand off at the elbow. They are like Sulcata with a big personality...great turtles. They're illegal to keep in Oregon.

Awwww, she just wanted to give you a love bite!

 

[tglazie]

Yeah, baby turtles are easy. I mean, I guess I'm a bit obsessive, with the cameras and the hours of time spent observing the tortoises and turtles despite having to spend over sixty hours per week running a business, but even when I kept my first couple of babies back in Korea, I was obsessed with providing them with the best care. Back then, there was no tortoise forum or internet resource. I had to rely on books by TFH that my dad got for me anytime he went stateside (and looking back, those books stank). Of course, I was a constant pest to my school librarian, asking for interlibrary loans of books on turtle care. Luckily, my cousin was very much into tropical fish, so he raised crickets, mealworms, and earthworms for his Cichlids. I ended up making those items, alongside various green veggies, the bulk of their diet. I also moved them from the death bowl in which my old man purchased them into a forty gallon tank with a rim filter.

Unfortunately, when it came time to move back stateside, these two had grown quite large, and my dad didn't want to go through the hassle of paperwork on these guys, so he lied and told me that we couldn't take them. I left them with my cousin who grew tired of them and released them into some local pond in Korea, which really made me angry, given that I always wanted them back (they were my first turtles, after all), and that he was upsetting the ecosystem. Nowadays, red ears are more common in Korea than Reeves turtles. I mean, anytime you see a body of water, it is bound to have a couple red ears swimming around in it. It has gotten completely out of control over there.

T.G.