The soft-shelled or leather-back turtles get to be almost as long, but not as heavy. 

 At the other end of the scale are the spotted turtle and the musk and mud 

 turtles, which seldom develop a carapace more than five inches long. It is a 

 surprise to most people to learn that the little turtles commonly sold in pet 

 shops may, under favorable conditions, attain a carapace length of ten inches. 



In addition to the famous marine Green Turtle, several fresh-water forms 

 are used for food. The best known of these is the diamond-back terrapin, 

 which is limited in range to the salt marshes along the coast from Massachu- 

 setts to the Gulf of Mexico. It has long been a favorite with epicureans. 

 The early American naturalist, Thomas Say, in a paper on turtles of the United 

 States read before the Philadelphia Academy of Science in 1824 said, "It is 

 held in high estimation as a delicate food, and is generally served up on the 

 tables of our public eating houses, boiled in the shell." Even then its numbers 

 were declining and other less tasty turtles were being used. In his discussion 

 of the snapping turtle Say said, '''It constitutes the chief ingredient of the 

 more common kind of 'turtle soup' of our taverns and oyster cellars". This 

 still holds true today, according to official reports. The wood turtle, which 

 superficially resembles the diamond-back, has been substituted for it to such 

 an extent that it now is protected by law in some states. The United States 

 Bureau of Fisheries has conducted a series of experiments at the Beaufort, 

 North Carolina, station to determine the possibilities of commercial propaga' 

 tion of diamond-back turtles, but few commercial growers have entered the 

 field. Species of the Pseudemys group are sold in many markets. 



Many pet shops stock baby turtles. These are usually the Cumberland, 

 with a red patch on each side of the neck, and Lesueur's or the ridgeback. 

 Occasionally a few barred terrapin (Pseudemys concinna) , snappers and paint' 

 ed turtles are included. Painting a turtle is like gilding a lily and is detrimental 

 to health and growth. Fortunately the paint may usually be pried or scraped 

 off without damage to the turtle. If the paint is not removed, the shell will 

 become soft or warped. All of these turtles should be provided with dry 

 perches upon which they can climb to sun themselves. Unless they can fre' 

 quently crawl out of the water to bask themselves in the sunshine, their shells 

 gradually soften and they die a lingering death. Duckweed, a minute float' 

 ing plant easily obtainable from many small ponds, should be available, as 

 most young turtles prefer it to any other green food. Small pieces of raw 

 meat or small worms should be fed to them every day or two, and should be 

 removed within an hour, if not eaten. Bits of fish intestine make an especially 

 nourishing food for most young turtles. Dr. Schmidt of the Field Museum has 

 reported experiments indicating that canned salmon or tuna fish also renders 

 pet turtles less susceptible to ''soft shell". The "ants' eggs", which are in reality 

 ant pupae in their cases, do not make good food for pet turtles. Continued 

 feeding of these pupae is known to cause blindness and eventual death, possibly 

 because of formic acid which they may contain. 



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