Alligator Snapping Turtle, The Best Pet MONSTER?

[Music] well hi there I like turtles and I am here today with what is I think the most hardcore of all turtles and that is the alligator snapping turtle oh look at those jaws he means business and he really really does mean business if my hand ends up in those jaws even though this is a pretty small alligator snapping turtle it's gonna be horrible just absolutely uh a horrendous day I'm gonna be honest with you and this guy hopefully he doesn't take any offense to this but the common snapping turtle a close relative of the alligator snapping turtle is probably my very favorite turtle and I love them so much because they're pretty hardcore looking and they've got the personality of a monitor lizard that's in the water they're just intelligent interactive and they're just fun and interesting but I will tell you this the alligator snapping turtle at least to look at it it's definitely cooler is I mean goodness gracious that's basically a bolt cutter and if you stick your hand in there it'll do the same thing that a bolt cutter would do to your hand it's just an unbelievable set of Jaws they've got plus they've got this ridiculous shell no turtle has a crazier looking shelled in this it's got three big spiny ridges down the back of it and then spikes at the end they've got a big long tail like like other snapping turtles but you know not like most turtles they got these powerful beasts legs with huge claws I mean just I don't know how a turtle could be any more intense looking if they're just there they're probably designed by like a 13-year old boy I'm just not not sure how it describes it's a cool thing not to mention that tongue that tongue that they use as a lure in one of the most cruel surprises in all of nature when you as a hungry fish go in there and discover that thing wasn't a worm after all but it was just heinous bait and this guy I mean this this turtle here is probably about 20 25 pounds they get way over a hundred pounds maybe even over 200 pounds enormous monster Turtles frankly this is a monster this this one like I said is a little one here at nerd or I am today they have a huge one alligator snapping turtles they are monsters but the alligator snapping turtle really is for a reptile that is a monster one of the most reasonable pet monsters you could get and so the question is is the alligator snapping turtle the best pet monster for you in order to sort this out we're gonna have to discuss the alligator snapping turtle based on our five categories which are handle ability care hardiness availability and upfront costs when it comes to handle ability we give the alligator snapping turtle a score of three out of five I honestly spent a long time trying to decide what that score should be because the reality is for a giant turtle that can bite your hand off they're actually very easy to handle but they're a giant turtle that can fight your hand off so III couldn't quite figure out what I wanted to tell you here the reality is especially compared to their cousins the common snapping turtles they're very easy to manipulate one of the big differences between these guys and the common snapping turtles is the length of their neck common snapping turtles have one of the longer necks among all turtles and they can reach more than halfway up over the top of their shell with that mouth which means when you're going to handle one unless it is a socialized one which they can actually come pretty darn friendly but if it's not a very socialized common snapping turtle you pretty much only have like the back 40% of the shell with which to hold that turtle well the turtle might weigh 50 pounds and a 50-pound turtle holding it not dead center is really really hard and if you mess that up it'll reach right back in it can grab you very very quickly the alligator snapping turtle on the other hand has a much shorter neck now the jaws and the jaw pressure and what it can do to you with the face is much worse than what you get with a common snapping turtle so you never want to lose track of what you're doing but a really nice thing is because that neck is so short you can actually grab them right here at the very front of the shell sometimes you're careful right you can grab them right there and at the back and then they can't kick you with their legs and I mean they're they're really nice grips so even in a very very heavy alligator snapping turtle if you're strong enough to lift 100 150 pounds you can pretty safely pick up a hundred and fifty even a two hundred pound alligator snapping turtle without getting bitten and without getting clawed by these claws you know that said these claws are wicked they're they're big and they're sharp when they get older the claws will not be quite as razor sharp as they are on this younger turtle but I mean they'll no scratch you up it's those jaws though it's easy to stay away from the jaws turtles are not very flexible unless they got that really long neck and these guys do not but man if you're anything wound up between those jaws it's gonna be a horrible day it's gonna be a horrible day so you got to be really careful about that but for an enormous turtle that can bite your hand off it's not gonna get any easier to handle them than this leg take just a minute to say thank you to our patrons at patreon who made this trip out to nerd possible it's been incredible we appreciate you guys so much because it gives us so many opportunities to cover animals like this alligator snapping turtle which we're actually not allowed to keep in Utah gives us an opportunity to show them to you and gives me an opportunity to live a few of my my dreams as well love me some alligator snapping turtles when it comes to care we give the alligator snapping turtle a score of four out of five honestly once you get them set up properly the care on these guys is really easy I mean the really the biggest pain to them is you're gonna need a great big aquarium they can at times bask you know some alligator snapping turtles will get out of the water to bask so it would be very wise if your if your aquarium also had a basking area with especially UVA basking bulbs but especially if you have one that never uses that area you can almost get away with a fully aquatic setup they're gonna spend most of their lives under the water and a mostly you just need it to be heated and filtered keep that water clarity good cycle the aquarium do periodic water changes but that's pretty much it as far as water goes then it comes down to just feeding and these guys can eat a lot of things they are they actually have a slightly omnivorous diet and so they will eat some vegetable matter some fruits but a lot of the diet is gonna come from meat and I would recommend whole prey items but you do need to be a little bit careful you know there's a temptation with anything that will eat fish to feed them goldfish and we've discussed in other videos but goldfish are just not a great source of protein especially as a staple diet for for turtles and and for other animals they can't eat some rodents though that's probably not gonna be a major part of their diet in any sort of meat you get them make sure you treat it you know you might need to cook it lightly in the microwave to deal with any pathogens that might be in it but if you give them a wide variety of meats and and also some fruits and vegetables all also prepared turtle diets they're gonna do great you're gonna do great when it comes to hardiness we give them a score of 5 out of 5 most Turtles quite frankly given proper here they're just rock-solid and the alligator snapping turtle this no exception to this rule you give them proper temperatures proper diet proper filtration they're just going to be amazing for you when it comes to availability we give the alligator snapping turtle a score of three out of five the reality is in the wild these turtles are not doing very well habitat destruction and hunting have really put a lot of pressure on the wild populations of alligator snapping turtles the great news is there are a lot of people breeding them in captivity and so even though you probably won't see them in pet stores and things like that you can absolutely find them online sometimes it expose if you're willing to have one shipped to your door you could probably have an alligator snapping turtle today when it comes to upfront costs we give the alligator snapping turtle a score of three out of five the captive-bred baby turtle will be a pretty expensive aquatic turtle I mean but when you consider what you're getting really not that bad after that you're pretty much just going to need a really big freshwater aquarium with proper filtration and that's really just about it as far as upfront costs go there they're very simple to set up and you know care of them is really pretty simple there they're really awesome and you know for these reasons overall we give them a score a three point six out of five which for a monster that's a really high score the truth is they can make great pets they can make really great pets I mean if you're willing to put in the care for one they're awesome and they're super impressive I mean there aren't very many giant impressive reptiles like this that are this reasonable to keep I will tell you the only reason I would say you might not want one assuming you're willing to put in all that care it's just that well for one thing it's gonna live a really long time and during all those decades that you're gonna have it it's not gonna do very much these guys spend most of their day in one spot mouth wide open wiggling that tongue around waiting for stuff to swim in their face and that is what they do all the time and they're super impressive and really cool so if you only watch them for ten minutes that's awesome right but if you watch them for like ten years twenty years or a hundred years they're kind of boring they're kind of boring compared to other aquatic turtles which can be a lot more interactive and and I think more fun but if what you want is a really impressive River monster that can live in your house and isn't even that hard to care for the alligator snapping turtle might just be the best pet reptile for you and they give you a little bit more feedback and when it's like keeping these beasts I want to turn over a little bit of time to Kevin McCurley who keeps this alligator snapping turtle and many others he's an expert so listen carefully this is truly a grumpy animal that I have to have a lot of respect for and this is the brute of all snapping turtles these guys that get to extreme sizes supposedly over 200 pounds I have one upstairs that's about 120 pounds and these can make fantastic pets ultimately these guys will if you've really committed to doing a good job you're gonna start seeing animals that could be the size and a for years and they start out as these little cute little innocent looking Turtles and they can get to be these grumpy little brats like this so this animal right here is very defensive we're gonna call that so basically this animal has no social graces and that little mouth right there I would never want to get bit by that's that's like no joke and so these guys are besides being an active forager or hunter these guys will also lay there and they'll use their tongue as a lure and so their mouth if I look in their mouth is really dark but then their tongue is pink and they'll sit there and with their trap open sit there and wiggle that tongue and wait for a little fish to come along and and go for it so I can tell you a couple things about alligator snapping turtles that people might not know they eat a lot of fruit they really seem to like little like streams or like open mouths of where stream meets a pond or whatever but they'll they'll go in these small waterways and things like grapes they'll find floating grapes and they're going to ingest these floating grapes and so they it's kind of it seems weird that an animal like this would actually include a large amount of its diet is fruit so whenever it's available so if you go to Georgia you know and so in the fall when the grapes for falling into the ponds whether it's it's low enough where these guys could get it they're gonna actively force on that but when they get older one of the big things they eat other Turtles I mean that mouth is designed to nail anything and that would also be you know sliders and Cooter's and whatever a wonderful species they are still being bred for in captivity there are people that I know that are friends that have large groups of adults and they will lay their eggs and they can then supply like the pet trade or the hobbyist trade and some of those babies are actually exported what's great about that is we have a captive source of animals that are be free of parasites and other problems yet alone the negatives of actually taking these animals out of the wild because in the wild these animals are definitely on the decline for me to go out there and catch one or see one it was you know it wasn't a common thing they're very very cryptic they blend in with everything and just to be able to catch a couple of these and we catch them let them go it's the same joined up to it so I often think that for the general public and if you're going to want to keep a snapping turtle these are great to look at and they're dramatic and all that but it's more to look at versus a common or southern snapping turtle where you can look at but there's a lot of room for interaction without getting bit as always like and subscribe and we hope to see you real soon [Music] it's like super angry old man angry old man he's the one of those guys off of the Muppets why don't you sit down why don't you sit down and chill oh yeah here you go this one is not wonderful I'll talk about the wonderful one for a sec come here jerk wiggling that tongue around [Music]

Channel: Clint's Reptiles

Views: 326,149

Keywords: Alligator snapping turtle, snapping turtle, pet turtle, the best pet turtle?, five of the best pet turtles, common snapping turtle, Macrochelys temminckii, Chelydra serpentina, alligator the best pet crocodilian, alligator, turtle, reptile, New England Reptile, NERD, Snake Discovery, brian barczyk, alligator snapper, snapper, florida snapping turtle, alligator snapping turtle feeding, alligator snapping turtle bite, snapping turtle care, snapping turtle tank, caiman, crocodilian

Id: KszwZ6HSMo0

Length: 16min 1sec (961 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 11 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/thief_akira]

What do you think of this video? Normally I think Clint is pretty alright, I personally see him like lizard sparknotes, meaning he gives you a super brief overview that works best as a supplement, but I personally think this vid is somewhat irresponsible because alligator snapping turtles don’t mess around