Are Snapping Turtles Legal? Seasons, Creel Limits and Bans

Most exotic pet laws give a yes or a no. The snapping turtle gets a number.

Chelydra serpentina is native across most of the eastern half of the United States, it is big, it is common, and it has been harvested for food for as long as anyone has kept records. That history is why fourteen jurisdictions answer this question with a season or a limit rather than with a prohibition, and why the answer usually lives in the fishing regulations rather than in anything about pets.

The Federal Rule Is About Size

Start with the one rule that applies everywhere. 21 CFR 1240.62, the FDA's turtle regulation, says:

Except as otherwise provided in this section, viable turtle eggs and live turtles with a carapace length of less than 4 inches shall not be sold, held for sale, or offered for any other type of commercial or public distribution.

It has been in force since 1975 and it was written about Salmonella, after small turtles sold as children's pets were traced to a large share of human cases. It applies to every turtle except marine species, so a hatchling snapping turtle is squarely inside it.

Three things it does not do. It does not ban ownership. It does not apply to sales "not in connection with a business," so a private transfer between two people is outside it. And it does not apply to distribution "for bona fide scientific, educational, or exhibitional purposes, other than use as pets."

That last clause is the one that gets misread. It is not a loophole for pet shops. Its own words exclude pet use.

Where Snapping Turtles Stand

The Season States Are the Interesting Ones

Fourteen jurisdictions give this animal a season or a limit, and reading them together tells you something no single one does: they are not regulating a pet, they are regulating a harvest.

New York is the clearest. The snapping turtle is the only native New York reptile with an open season, and that is exactly why it is the only native a private person can lawfully hold. Take it with a hunting license between July 15th and September 30th, by firearm or bow, carapace twelve inches or longer measured in a straight line, five a day and thirty a season. Every other native reptile in New York is closed.

Michigan's numbers are smaller and its consequence is larger. Two a day, four total, July 15th to September 15th, a 13-inch minimum carapace, fishing license required. And because Michigan bars buying, selling or offering to sell any reptile or amphibian, there is no shop route at all: a legal snapping turtle in Michigan is one you took yourself, in season.

Pennsylvania is the most permissive of the group at fifteen a day and thirty in possession, and it adds a wrinkle most states do not. Taking one for sale, barter or trade needs an annual permit first, and a separate section bars importing a native species from another jurisdiction. So you cannot solve a Pennsylvania problem by buying a turtle in Ohio.

Delaware has no season and the smallest number on the list. Its wildlife rule, 7 Del. Admin. Code 3900-15.2.1, makes it unlawful to take or possess any native reptile without a permit, and 15.2.2 then lists the species of which "1 individual" may be collected and possessed without one. The snapping turtle is on that list. Breeding needs a permit, and a turtle held more than 30 days may not be released back to the wild.

Some States File It Under Fish

If you have looked for a snapping turtle rule and found nothing, this is probably why.

Maryland treats the species as a fishery. It appears on none of the three native herptile lists, which looks like an omission until you notice which agency has it: the Fisheries Service, under the Natural Resources Article rather than the wildlife article. The rule that governs taking one prohibits hook and line, trot line, bow and arrow, spear, gig or "any other device capable of piercing any part of a turtle."

Nebraska does the same thing. Its herptile chapter excludes game species, and the snapping turtle is handled in the fishing regulations alongside fish, bullfrogs and mussels, with a daily bag limit and a possession limit set annually by the Commission, and take restricted to hand, hand net, hook and line, bow or gaff. Selling, offering for sale, trading or bartering one is unlawful.

Wisconsin tightens the same idea on January 1, 2027. CR 25-092 recreates NR 16.12 so that no one may possess a live native reptile except under its listed exemptions, and the one for this animal lets a person hold a live snapping turtle for no more than seven days for a harvest authorized under the fishing rules. A snapping turtle already kept before that date has to be registered with the DNR by June 30, 2027.

Minnesota is the third. Its 2021 pet reptile reform covered snakes, lizards and salamanders and stopped there, so turtles stayed under an older regime built around a resident angling license plus a recreational turtle license.

The practical takeaway: if your state has no snapping turtle entry in the wildlife chapter, check the fishing regulations before concluding there is no rule.

Where the Answer Is No

Seven jurisdictions ban it, and they split into two kinds.

Four name the family. California prohibits "Family Chelyridae, Snapping Turtles: All species." Nevada lists "Snapping Turtles, All species in the family Chelydridae" among prohibited species, which makes importation, transportation and possession unlawful with permits available only to accredited zoos, universities, government agencies, commercial aquaculture and tax-exempt educational exhibitors. Oregon prohibits the whole family, taking the alligator snapper along with the common one. New York City names both species in its Health Code.

The other three get there without naming it. Colorado's chapter allows what it lists and Chelydridae appears nowhere in it, so the animal is regulated wildlife with no pet license available. Rhode Island lists it among native turtles whose possession is limited to the Department, USFWS, AZA zoos, research institutions and USDA licensed exhibitors. Hawaii puts it on a research-and-exhibition list.

Colorado's is worth one extra line because it has a live grandfather clause: a snapping turtle legally collected on or before May 1, 2026, may be kept and transported within Colorado for the life of the animal, if a CPW Legacy Report was filed by July 30, 2026. No new wild capture is allowed.

Kansas and Virginia Both Treat It as a Fishing Animal

Kansas carves this turtle out of its reptile rule by name. K.A.R. 115-20-2(b)(13) puts reptiles on the list of wildlife a Kansan may take for personal use, "except common snapping turtles and soft-shelled turtles", which takes the animal straight back out along with the two-per-species cap that goes with it. The reason for the carve-out is that Kansas files it under fishing instead: K.A.R. 115-7-5(b) sets the legal methods, hand, hook and line, set line, dip net, seine, turtle trap and gig, and (d) says "a valid Kansas fishing license shall be required to take common snapping turtles and soft-shelled turtles." With K.S.A. 32-1002(a)(2) barring possession of any wildlife a regulation does not permit, that license is the only route Kansas gives to a snapping turtle, and the rules address no dealer route at all.

Virginia does the same thing from the other direction. Virginia runs two schemes, and 4VAC15-20-50 decides which one an animal is in. A "nonnative (exotic) animal" is one "not naturally occurring in Virginia, excluding domestic and naturalized species", so the special permit table at 4VAC15-30-40 never reaches an animal Virginia already has, and native and naturalized status is fixed by a document incorporated into the rule, the department's 2024 List of Native and Naturalized Fauna of Virginia. The snapping turtle, Chelydra serpentina, is on that list with no asterisk. 4VAC15-360-10(A) then caps native and naturalized herps at one per physical address "unless specifically listed in this subsection", and subdivision 5 lists this one: "The daily limit for bullfrogs shall be 15 and for snapping turtles shall be five. Snapping turtles shall only be taken from June 1 to September 30 and must have a minimum curved-line carapace length of 13 inches." The size floor is the condition that reaches a keeper, because it rules out the hatchling that is how nearly anyone ends up with one.

What This Adds Up To

Twenty jurisdictions have no rule reaching this animal. Fourteen give it a season, a bag limit or both. Seven require a permit. Three restrict it. Seven ban it. One is unresolved.

That distribution is unusual, and the reason is that the snapping turtle is one of very few reptiles the United States still manages as a harvestable resource. The rules read like fishing rules because in several states they are fishing rules, and they attach to the act of taking rather than to the act of keeping.

Two pieces of practical advice follow. First, check the fishing regulations, not just the wildlife ones. Second, remember what these numbers are for: a fifteen-a-day limit is written for someone filling a pot, not for someone setting up a tank, and a single adult snapping turtle is a long-lived, powerful animal that most keepers should not take on.

The box turtle legal guide covers the native turtle that states treat the opposite way, as something to protect rather than harvest, and the red-eared slider legal guide covers the same four-inch federal rule from the invasive-species side. The exotic pet legal hub explains how these rule structures differ.

To see this at a glance, our interactive map of snapping turtle laws shades every state and clicking one gives you the rule it comes from.

Sources & Further Reading