Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi, I'm working on a webpage outlining the dangers of plastic "death bowls" people sometimes keep juvenile pet turtles in. If any one has any information or pictures (especially of MBD) about turtles that have been kept in these pictures, I would love to hear from you!
Stop Pet Store Abuse

What does MBD have to do with plastic bowls? I keep small/baby turtles in bowls or shoe boxes until they get around 3 inches. My friend just hatched out some common musk that would drown in a tank. As long as you change the water daily, let sunlight get to the turtle & have a good diet then there is no problem with bowls. I have 3 sliders & some maps that are 5-6 inches that lived in a bowl the 1st 2 yrs. of their lives.

Turtle bowls (flat plastic kidney shaped bowls, usually with a little plastic palm tree in the middle) do NOT allow for proper heating of water and they would probably melt if the proper lighting and heating was used. And most people that purchase these bowls keep them inside just like any other terrarium. Turtles are not kept outside where they would get UVB... leading to the MBD.

The amount of water these things hold is also a joke. It would have to be changed after every single time a turtle defecated.
AND they don't provide any real spot for turtles to get out of the water and dry off. (So I'm guessing I should also be asking for pics of shell rot.)

In my opinion, no well-informed person would EVER keep a turtle of ANY kind in one of these bowls for any amount of time. They should definitely not be used as permanent housing (what they are sold as).

I'm guessing you're referring to a different "bowl"... Nothing wrong with keeping small turtles in small containers as long as they provide for their requirements of heat, clean water, and UVB.

Here's a link with a little more info on these bowls:
http://www.chelonia.org/Articles/deathbowls.htm

Honestly you & I could make it work as like you said you will need a place for the turtles to bask & change the water at least 4 times a day as I change at least 3 times in my containers. I do see what you mean as general public that these are sold to would place them in a wrong place on average leading to the demise of the turtle. I admit years ago when I was about 7-10 yrs. old, I am now 32, I fell for that type of bowl but my turtles ( a painted & red ear) lived to be full size each. I kept them out side in the summer for a few hrs. because I grew up chasing turtles in the wild & knew they liked sun didn't know why but from watching them in the wild I knew it was important somehow.I also feed them insets I caught & some scraps from our plates. Yeah those bowls would take more work then the average person would do.