Be sure you know how much work a small pet will take!

My sweet little turtles, Yertle and Myrtle, do no require much daily work. They don't need to be walked or played with. They don't need any training. There are no litter boxes or dishes to be cleaned. You don't need to sweep around their tank (well, actually, I do, since Kiki lives in the same room). I just need to check on them and feed them.

But when I have to clean out the tank- it is the most time consuming pet-related thing that I have to do. These are the steps I must take:

1. Take out the turtles
2. Convince my brother to watch the turtles
3. Scoop out/ siphon as much of the water out as I can
4. Take out all the gravel
5. Dump out the dirty water
6. Rinse out the tank outside
7. Rinse out the gravel outside
8. Spray the filter foam/cartridge with the hose until clean
9. Clean out the filter and run water through it
10. Pore the gravel into the tank and spread it out evenly
11. Dump water out of a kettle into the tank (this takes three trips)
12. Put the turtles back in the tank
13. Put the filter cartridge/foam back in and put the filter in the tank
14. Plug the filter in (and prime it most of the time)

Gone are the days when I could just rinse out a fish bowl and some marbles.... the point of all this is that you need to know how much time a small pet will take. Many people do not research this, and that it how small pets end up abandoned, or in a shelter, or suffering in dirty cages.

By the way, my turtles are very much worth it! :)