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Atlas / Library / Chelydridae / Common Snapping Turtle
CITES II
Chelydridae

Common Snapping Turtle

Chelydra serpentina

Part of this is not on the page we cite. We opened it on 10 Aug 2026 and some of the degrees above are not stated there. The values above may still be right, but we cannot show you where they came from, and nobody here has checked them against a second source. Anything about a sick animal goes to a qualified exotic vet, not to a page. kyherpsoc.org

Photograph: lwolfartist · CC BY

Photographed by an observer on iNaturalist and published under a Creative Commons licence; the photographer and the licence are named under the image. It is not an animal of ours, and no animal was handled by us to produce it.

CITES II is a global listing and holds in every country. National law is not global, and we hold no national wildlife law for any country, Thailand included. Check your own authority before buying or selling.

Check your setup against this sheet I keep one 123 plants usable with this species
Back to the globe My keep

https://keepr.pet/husbandry/en/chelydra-serpentina

‹ All husbandry guides
warm end32 °C
cool end24–26 °C
Diet1 days

The numbers

Thermal gradient

152025303540 °C
24–26°Cool side
32°Warm side

A real gradient, 32°C warm against 24–26°C cool, so the animal chooses. The sheet states no separate night figure.

Why

Same scale on every sheet here, so two species compare by eye.

The sheet stateswarm 32 °C / cool 24-26 °C

UVB

Optionalbeneficial

The sheet statesA high quality UVB bulb such as a 5.0 ReptiSun bulb is recommended for adults and a 10.0 ReptiSun bulb is recommended for hatchlings and young turtles

Enclosure
Hatchlings can be comfortably kept in a 10-gallon tank or equivalent container. An 8 inch long juvenile will require a 55-gallon or larger enclosure. Adults need a 2 foot deep by 4 foot long pond like enclosure. Generally speaking, there should be 6 inches of aquarium floor per every 1 inch of turtle

Identity

Origin

Enclosure and conditions

Temperature
warm 32 °C / cool 24–26 °C

What your climate adds

This sheet states a range to hold. Your local climate decides how much work holding it is. Pick the nearest city: nothing is sent anywhere, the choice stays in this browser.

Diet

Feeding rhythm

every 1 dAs the sheet states
28Meals in 28 days

Twenty-eight days, one row. Each band is a meal window.

Why

The windows widen as they go because the interval is a range: four meals after a 10–14 day cycle land anywhere between day 40 and day 56.

The sheet statesThese turtles are omnivores and will consume fresh water, crayfish, earthworms, pelleted diets, floating duckweed, water lettuce, and water hyacinth. Snappers less than 6 months old should be fed twice daily and turtles over 6 months old should be fed once every other day

Common questions

Is it dangerous?

Yes. An adult can take a finger, and the neck reaches much further back than people expect, so never lift it by the sides of the shell.

How big does it get?

A shell of roughly 25 to 47 cm and often 10 to 16 kg, sometimes more. Plan for a large tank or an outdoor pond.

Can my kids feed it?

No. Feeding time is when bites happen, so use long tongs and keep children away from the tank.

How long does it live?

Thirty to fifty years in captivity, a very long commitment for a difficult animal.

What it needs

A heat sourcebecause temp — warm 32 °C / cool 24-26 °C
A thermostat to regulate itbecause temp — warm 32 °C / cool 24-26 °C
A thermometerbecause temp — warm 32 °C / cool 24-26 °C
UVB, stated as beneficial rather than requiredbecause uvb — A high quality UVB bulb such as a 5.0 ReptiSun bulb is recommended for adults and a 10.0 ReptiSun bulb is recommended for hatchlings and young turtles
Not stated: The size of the enclosurethis sheet describes the enclosure without a figure: « Hatchlings can be comfortably kept in a 10-gallon tank or equivalent container. »

Every line above is deduced from a value this sheet states, and names which one. Nothing here is a general recommendation. What the sheet does not state is listed too, rather than left out: a kit that looks complete is worse than one that names its gap.

Sources

crestwoodvethospital.com — lu le 2026-08-04kyherpsoc.org — lu le 2026-08-04speciesplus.net — lu le 2026-08-08reptile-database.reptarium.cz — lu le 2026-08-08

Others in this group

Red-eared SliderTrachemys scripta elegansmarginatedTestudo marginataYellow-bellied SliderTrachemys scripta scriptaPainted TurtleChrysemys pictaCommon musk turtle (Stinkpot)Sternotherus odoratusEastern mud turtleKinosternon subrubrumMalayan Box TurtleCuora amboinensisChinese Box TurtleCuora flavomarginata

What this sheet states

46%
TemperatureHumidityEnclosure sizeActivityOriginDietSourcesUVB

This sheet states 3 of 7 of the fields this product runs on. What is missing turns something off: humidity instrument and audit, enclosure size audit, day/night engine and awake count on the globe, the diet section. We show the gap rather than fill it with a plausible number.

UVB is measured but does not count: it is absent from 421 of 678 sheets, and on most of them that is not a gap, since a nocturnal snake's sheet has no reason to state a UV index. Counting it would call the library incomplete without cause.