How to raise Chinese grass turtles?

How to raise Chinese grass turtles? Chinese grass turtle, commonly known as tortoise, is the most widely distributed and most numerous species of turtles in China. The whole body is a treasure, which is regarded as the top grade of food and medicine in Shennong Materia Medica and Compendium of Materia Medica. Let's take a look at how to raise Chinese grass turtles.

Posture characteristics

The tortoise body of Chinese grass is long oval, the dorsal armour is slightly raised, there are 3 longitudinal edges, and the ridge edge is obvious. The top of the head is black and olive, with smooth skin at the front and fine scales at the back. The ventral nail is flat and notched at the back end. The neck, limbs and exposed skin are grayish black or black olive.

The male is small, with a long tail, smelly, black toenail and abdominal nail at sexual maturity, and the olive green lines of the skin fade and turn black.

Female toenail from light brown to dark brown, abdominal nail brownish black, short tail, no peculiar smell. The Chinese grass turtle has strong adaptability to the environment, low water quality requirements, and high tolerance to bad water quality. in high-density culture, there is no killing each other, and the prevalence rate is low.

Life habits

1. Breathe with the lungs, and there are well-developed horny nail tablets on the body surface, which can reduce water evaporation. Sexually mature Chinese grass turtles lay their eggs on land and do not need to go through a completely aquatic stage.

2. Omnivorous, in nature, animal feeds are mainly worms, small fish, shrimp, snails, clams, earthworms, animal carcasses and internal organs, hot pig blood, etc., while plant feeds are mainly plant stems and leaves, melon peel, wheat bran and so on.

3. Group cave dwelling, sometimes because there are too many groups, the back nail is smooth and the limbs are worn and still not scattered.

4. Shelling is a very rare phenomenon in nature, and it may also be an abnormal phenomenon of organisms.

5. At what temperature does the Chinese grass turtle grow fastest? Adult turtles and juvenile turtles were reared at 23 ℃, 26 ℃, 29 ℃, 32 ℃ and 35 ℃ for 30 days, respectively. The results showed that the weight gain of adult turtles (male) was obvious at 23 ℃ ~ 26 ℃, the fastest at 23 ℃, the second at 26 ℃, and the worst at 35 ℃. The weight gain of adult tortoise (female) was obvious at 23 ℃ ~ 29 ℃, with the fastest growth at 23 ℃, the second at 29 ℃ and the worst at 35 ℃. At the same temperature of 23 ℃ and the same diet, the female turtle grew 34.2% faster than the male tortoise. The juvenile turtles grew the fastest at 26 ℃, the second at 29 ℃ and the worst at 35 ℃.

Biological natural enemy

The main enemies of Chinese grass turtles are snakes, water rats, weasels, wild cats and so on. In summer, Chinese grass turtles are often active at night, while water rats and weasels also go in and out at night. Although Chinese grass turtles are protected by hard shells, they are still easy to be bitten to death by enemies.

In addition, when the eggs of turtles are rotten and deteriorated, they often attract a large number of ants to endanger the eggs and young turtles, which is very disadvantageous to the breeding of turtles. Therefore, attention must be paid to eliminating these enemies so that the farmed Chinese grass turtles can get a good ecological environment. To facilitate the breeding and growth of Chinese grass turtles.

Reproduction method

1. Mating and spawning

Female turtles weigh more than 700g, can be used for mating and reproduction, male and female ratio at 2:1, if the female turtle weight more than 700g, need to mate with larger male turtles to mate and reproduce successfully. The suitable temperature for mating is 20ml / 30C, the mating time is 5-6pm in sunny day and 2pm-4pm in rainy day. The mating process usually takes only 5 minutes.

The spawning period of turtles varies from place to place. In plain waters, the spawning period usually begins at the end of May, reaches its peak in July and August, and ends in September. A female parent tortoise lays eggs for 4 times a year, each time a hole is 5, and each hole is 3 per hole. Captive turtles have the habit of laying eggs in groups, and sometimes several turtles can lay dozens of eggs in the same hole. Before spawning, female turtles choose loose slopes and hidden roots or weeds to dig holes, with a hole size of about 8mi 10cm. It is 9 mm deep and 12 cm deep. Most of the spawning time is at night or dawn.

There are two kinds of hatching of turtle eggs: natural hatching and artificial hatching.

2. Natural hatching

① dug a sand pit at the foot of the sunny wall of the turtle pond, which is 40 centimeters wide and 20 centimeters deep (unlimited length). Then fill the pit with yellow sand and arrange the eggs in the sand at a distance of 1 centimeter; maintain a certain amount of humidity and warm up by the sun, and the young turtles emerge in 50 minutes and 60 days.

② built several small sand piles around the turtle pond to allow mature turtles to climb ashore at night, dig holes in the sand piles to lay eggs, and let them hatch naturally. The young turtles were born in about 50 seconds and 70 days.

2. Artificial incubation

The harvested turtle eggs are placed in a wooden box with a height of 25cm (unlimited length and width according to local conditions). Several small holes are drilled at the bottom of the box, and the bottom is covered with 15mur20cm sand. The turtles are arranged in the sand, and then sprinkle about 2cm thick fine yarn on the eggs, and the sand is covered with wet towels to maintain the indoor humidity of 25fu 35 degrees. When the air is dry and sunny, sprinkle water on the sand twice a day, the air humidity is high, and the number of sprinklers can be reduced. The box is covered with a wet cloth to prevent the juvenile turtles from escaping, preventing enemy attacks and mosquito bites when the young turtles come out of the shell. In this way, the juvenile turtles come out of the shell for 50 minutes after 60 days, and the turtle emergence rate is more than 90%.