One of the turtle breeds in Shunde: Chinese grass turtle

Chinese grass turtle, commonly known as tortoise, is the most widely distributed turtle species in China. Whether you stop at the flower, fish and insect market, linger by the pool in the park, or pass by restaurants and hotels, it is easy to find the figure of grass turtle. However, even if you have seen many grass turtles, you may not know the living habits of this turtle and how to raise it. This paper introduces the characteristics of grass turtle in detail from the aspects of morphological characteristics, living habits, breeding management points and breeding mode, for your reference.

1. Morphological characteristics

Tortoise body for the long oval, back a slightly raised, there are 3 longitudinal edges, ridge obvious. The top of the head is olive black, with smooth skin at the front and fine scales at the back. Male tortoises are small in size, with greyish black or black olive on the neck, limbs and exposed skin, long tail and smelly smell. The female turtle shell is lighter in color than the male turtle, yellow brown or dark brown, brown and black in abdominal shell, short tail and no peculiar smell.

Due to the smell problem of male and female turtles, some turtle friends who intend to raise grass turtles for viewing will choose female turtles for breeding. However, when buying grass turtles, how to identify male and female turtles is also a difficult problem for most turtle friends. This is because it is generally difficult to distinguish male and female tortoises before reaching sexual maturity, but Master Lin, who has many years of experience in turtle breeding, told us a good way to distinguish them, that is, there will be slight dents on the abdominal carapace of male tortoises, while female tortoises are flat, and female tortoises of the same age are larger than male tortoises.

2. Living habits

Turtles have better adaptability to the environment. They breathe with lungs and have cutin developed on their body surface. They can reduce water evaporation and belong to amphibious animals. Turtles are omnivorous animals, animal feed can be small fish, shrimp, snails, mussels, clams,@#@254@#@and animal viscera, etc.; plant feed is mainly plant stems and leaves, melon and fruit peel, wheat bran, etc. In different seasons, the feed intake of grass turtle changed obviously. In addition, in the natural environment or under the condition of high density artificial culture, the habit of group burrowing of grass turtles is also obvious.

3. Key points of feeding management

According to Master Lin, the young turtles after hatching are delicate and should be raised separately and carefully managed. A concrete pond is usually built to raise young turtles. The pond is one-third land and two-thirds water. At the same time, feed the young turtles with cooked protein, egg yolk, cooked noodles, rice, crushed fish, shrimp and other fine feeds. Generally, it is best for young turtles to winter separately from adult turtles. The method of overwintering young turtles is generally to put a small wooden plate in the breeding room, put 20~30 cm thick sand in the plate, put the young turtles into the sand, then sprinkle 0.5 cm thick yarn on the young turtles, cover them with gauze, spray some warm water appropriately, and they can safely overwinter.

Adult turtles are easier to raise, small fish, shrimp, snails, clam meat, vegetables, rice and wheat can eat. Generally, when the water temperature rises above 15 ° C, it begins to eat, June to September is the peak period, and November begins to decline. When the water temperature drops below 15℃, it enters hibernation. The temperature in spring and autumn is low, feeding time is 8~9 am, during summer, turtles are generally morning and evening activities, feeding should be carried out at 4~5 pm. Turtles swallow food in water, accounting for about 4% of their body weight. Generally feed every other day, after feeding to clean up the residue in time, frequent water change to prevent pollution caused harm to turtles. A sunny and quiet place can be selected as the wintering pool. There should be 20 cm thick silt at the bottom of the pool. After disinfection, let the grass turtle dive into the silt for wintering.

4. Breeding mode and market of grass turtle

At present, there are very few pure wild grass turtle germplasm resources. Most@#@136@#@on the market are artificial breeding products. There are three main artificial breeding modes of grass turtle, which are greenhouse breeding, greenhouse to pond breeding and pond breeding. There are some differences in growth cycle and quality of grass turtles under different breeding modes, which leads to different market prices.

According to the analysis of the personage inside course of study, now adopt greenhouse breeding mode in Jiangsu and Zhejiang area mostly, this kind of breeding mode can prolong the growth period of grass turtle and shorten the breeding cycle, generally 1~2 years time can grow into the market specification, but because of the oversupply in recent years, greenhouse turtle price is relatively low, market benefit is not obvious. According to the quotation of Oriental Turtle Network, the price of grass turtle in greenhouse breeding mode at present is 15~17 yuan/catty.

"Greenhouse + pond" mode is to cultivate turtles in greenhouse for half a year or one year, and then transfer to pond for two years after reaching a certain weight. This method takes about three years. In the outer pond culture environment, the turtle body color is slightly natural, the body shape is relatively good-looking, and the price has increased.