There are many types of turtles in the world. Let's try to speak about the most common types of turtles that you can find in any pet stores in United States. There is quite a big list of types of turtles so let's take them one by one.
As reports show the red-eared Slider is the best known type of turtle in the United States. At first the Red-eared Slider was a kind of dime-store turtle. The opinion about this types of turtles is that they are little tiny turtles that don't grow to big but many people don't know that if you keep in mind all the turtle care issues for this types of turtles, feed it fell than they can grow very big, somewhere about one foot log. Their carapaces are disc-shaped and green with thin yellow stripes or blotches. The tail of the male red-eared sliders is longer than female's. But the female is usually bigger than the male red-eared slider. When they are adults this types of turtles need a really large turtle tank.
There are also other types of turtles that need the same turtle care methods like the red-eared sliders. This would be Florida Cooters (Pseudemys floridana), Painted Turtles (Chrysemys picta), and Map Turtles such as the Common Map Turtle (Graptemys geographica).
Florida Cooters is a type of turtle that look much like the read-eared sliders but have less decorations and they are more herbivorous than the sliders.
Map-turtles are semi-aquatic animals and from this types of turtles that are similar to red-eared sliders are the most difficult to keep. They are a very nervous type of turtle that should be kept in captivity in a place with few traffic so they don't get stressed.
Other types of turtles that are very different from the sliders type are the mud and musk turtles. This would be Kinosternon and Sternotherus species. Like we said the sliders are quite big turtles with beautiful colours. But the mud turtles are little turtles with no beautiful coloration. The advantage of having this type of turtle is that they adapt quite easy in captivity and if they are well taken care of they can live for over 50 years. This types of turtles are probably one of he best choices for a beginner turtle keeper.
There are four species of Sternotherus turtles and they can be found in the United states. From the 16 species of Kinosternon only five can be found in the united States. The Common Musk Turtle (Sternotherus odoratus), the Eastern Mud Turtle (Kinosternon subrubrum), Striped Mud Turtle (K. baurii) and the Yellow Mud Turtle (K. flavescens) are the easiest to be found in pet stores.
Let's talk a little about the advantages of having this types of turtles as your pet. First of all because they are small turtles the Mud and Musk turtles don't need a very big enclosure setup. Also the basking are shouldn't be too large. Despite their name, mud turtles, they don't really need a muddy bottom. Also try to provide them some underwater hiding place. you can use rocks for this but be sure that the rocks are safe placed so you will avoid trapping your pet in a rock prison.
Other types of turtles that you can find on the pet market in the United States are Snappers and Softshells turtles. But this types of turtles are a little harder to care and are not recommended for beginners.
So this are the types of turtles that you can easily find in the united states. keep in mind all this species and if you decide to buy a turtle just go to a pet store peek the one that you like but be sure to know all the turtle care issues that can appear for the selected species.