All animals have a specific smell and, at some point or another, some animals may smell bad. Some critters, however, can smell so bad that they’ll make your eyes water.
If you are a turtle owner or have been around someone who keeps turtles as pets, you’ve probably noticed that turtles can smell like a rotten swamp.
Table of Contents
Why Do Turtles Smell So Bad?
Turtles smell bad because they are messy and produce a surprising amount of waste for an animal of their size. Over time, large quantities of turtle waste builds up inside the tank and, along with leftover food, generate a malodorous scent of fecal matter and rotten food.
This means that generally speaking, once your turtle starts to work up a stink, it will continue to do so until you take the necessary steps to remediate the problem.
How To Prevent Stinky Turtle Odors
If your pet turtle is giving off unpleasant smells remedying the problem is simple, you just need to clean up after it more. Here are some quick things you can do that will help with the odors right away
- Remove any uneaten organic debris that may be contributing to bacteria growth.
- Take your turtle out of the aquarium and wash down the enclosure. Be sure not to use any soap or strong chemicals that may be harmful to your pet.
- Invest in a good filter. Turtles are notoriously dirty so it does not make sense to cheap out on the filter.
That alone should be enough to notice a change, but I suggest you check out How To Keep Your Turtle Tank From Smelling because cleaning your tank, not your turtle, is how to get rid of your turtle’s foul odor.
In the meantime,
Here Are A Few Curious Facts About Turtles
Turtles Do Not Have Any Vocal Cords
This is one of the most surprising facts about turtles. Neither land turtles nor sea turtles have vocal cords, yet they are still able to emit various types of sounds to communicate with one another.
The majority of these sounds are not easy to hear because they have frequencies outside human hearing ranges. Some cries, like those made during reproduction, are very audible and quite the funny thing to behold.
Turtles Do Not Have Ears
Another very curious fact about turtles is that they do not have external ears. This means that while turtles do have an auditory system and can hear sounds, their auditory organs are all found inside their heads.
Despite all of this, turtles can communicate with each other via a complex “language” made up of over 300 distinct noises or “words” ranging across a wide spectrum of frequencies.
A Turtle’s Shell Is Ingenious
The most distinctive feature of all turtles is, without a doubt, their peculiar shell. The shell provides turtles with significant protection against predators and accidental blows.
While the hardness of a turtle’s shell varies from species to species, it is one of evolution’s most ingenious solutions.
Furthermore, contrary to popular belief, a turtle’s shell is NOT an exoskeleton. It is rather a complex modification of the animals’ spine and ribs.
Some Turtles Grow To Gigantic Size
There are different species of giant turtles. These animals are some of the larger reptiles that currently exist. Some tortoises can weigh more than 900 pounds, measure more than 6 feet in length, and live for more than 100 years.
Turtles May Go Extinct
There are around 300 different species of turtles and tortoises in the world, and just under half of them are either endangered or critically endangered, and facing a very high degree of extinction. This fact is extremely regrettable since turtles are some of the world’s oldest animals, and if they were to go extinct it would almost certainly be our fault.
