My Science School

A baby turtle is called a hatchling, while hatchling is most often used for a young bird, tadpoles, newts and new born baby turtles.

Baby turtles are cute little creatures that require totally different care than adult turtles, needing a lot of special care to keep them alive and healthy. They're prone to many diseases and carry many disease-carrying germs. You have to feed a baby turtle food that is available in the pet store, while supplementing their diets with vegetables, meat and fruit. Land turtles tend to eat more vegetables than those living in water.

The building block of your baby turtle's diet is the pellet or gel capsule supplement, which is a snap to find in any pet store that sells turtle supplies. There are two caveats, however: you should examine each label to make sure your newborn turtle is getting the best diet possible, and you should select a formula that's been approved for your particular shelled pet. For example, what a baby box turtle eats is more of a true omnivorous diet than a water turtle eats, which includes more raw meat as a baby but a more omnivorous diet as an adult.

 

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Turtles are reptiles of the order Testudines. They are characterized by a special bony or cartilaginous shell developed from their ribs that acts as a shield. "Turtle" may refer to the order as a whole (American English) or to fresh-water and sea-dwelling Testudines (British English). Testudines includes both extant (living) and extinct species. Its earliest known members date from the Middle Jurassic. Turtles are one of the oldest reptile groups, more ancient than snakes or crocodilians. Of the 356 known extant species, some are highly endangered.

A turtle's diet varies greatly depending on the environment in which it lives. Adult turtles typically eat aquatic plants,[citation needed] invertebrates such as insects, snails, and worms, and have been reported to occasionally eat dead marine animals. Several small freshwater species are carnivorous, eating small fish and a wide range of aquatic life. However, protein is essential to turtle growth and juvenile turtles are purely carnivorous.

Sea turtles typically feed on jellyfish, sponges, and other soft-bodied organisms. Some species with stronger jaws have been observed to eat shellfish, while others, such as the green sea turtle, do not eat meat at all and, instead, have a diet largely made up of algae.

 

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Yes, sea turtles can feel it when you touch their shell. Sea turtle shells consist of bones, which are covered by a layer of so-called scutes (plates). These scutes are made of keratin, the same material that human fingernails are made of. There are nerve endings enervating even the bones of the shell. These nerve endings are sensitive to pressure, for example from a touch on the back.

A tortoise’s shell obviously isn’t as sensitive as its skin, but the animals are able to feel the tactile sensations that occur when someone pats, rubs, scratches, or taps it. This has to do with how the shell is physically attached to the tortoise’s body.

One thing that tortoises and turtles have in common is their tendency to recede into their shells when they feel threatened. In the proper care, however, most tortoises appear to enjoy being touched by their caretakers. In some cases, they extend their necks out while being touched or massaged – a sign that the animal wants to be rubbed some more.

 

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According to the Guinness World Records, the oldest dog on record was another Australian dog named Bluey, who was 29 years and five months. Bluey died in 1939.

Bluey – or, known by his full name as Bluey Les Hall – lived from 7 June 1910 to 14 November 1939. He was owned by Les and Esma Hall and is officially the oldest dog according to the Guinness Book of World Records.

Bluey’s age is part of what urged a study to be conducted regarding the longevity of the lives of Australian cattle dogs. This study involved one hundred dogs and found that, on average, this breed of dog had the tendency to live about one year longer than other breeds. As such, Bluey’s case is still considered an outlier as he lived a full decade and a half more than the average life expectancy.

 

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Dogs have a keen sense of hearing. In fact, they are capable of hearing sounds four times further away than the human ear can discern. Their ears are also better designed to gather more available sound waves. They have 15 different muscles that move their ears in all directions. Plus they can move one ear at a time, independently of the other, to absorb even more information.

They can also hear sounds four times further away — so what human ears can hear from 20 feet away; our dogs can hear from 80 feet away.

Even though our dogs can hear better than we can, do they understand what they’re hearing?

Two studies, one published in the journal Current Biology and the other in Science, conclude that the answer is yes! Your dog might not understand everything you say, but he listens and pays attention similar to the way humans do. The researchers discovered that dogs — like humans — respond not only to the words we say to them, but also to the emotional tone of our voices.

 

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If you’ve ever watched your dog twitching, chattering or moving their paws while sleeping, you may have wondered if they are dreaming. The answer is yes. Dogs do dream.

While we know that humans regularly dream during their sleep, for many years it was unclear if animals did. So scientists monitored the brains of rats while awake and performing tasks such as running around tracks for food. They then compared their brain activity while asleep and discovered exactly the same. This indicated that rats were indeed dreaming. In fact it’s likely that all mammals dream. But why?

To understand dreaming, it helps to understand the process of sleep. Sleep is a natural state characterised by reduced consciousness along with reduced or paused sensory and voluntary muscular activity. In other words, you don’t eat, smell or walk during your sleep. We still do not know the reason that sleep is so important to animals but it appears to aid in growth and repair of our body systems. During sleep the brain also appears to process information and experiences gained during the day.

 

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