Turtles

I'm a reptile hobbyist, just wondering if anybody here also keeps turtles?

I have Ornate Wood Turtles, hatched 5 babies from my adults. I also have a Reeves and a Spotted I'm raising.

This is my first baby Steve, brand new. He's a year old now and about the size of my hand! :D
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v431/buslady/Animals/100_1456.jpg

One of my subadults, Raphie, he's a really sweet guy.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v431/buslady/Animals/DSC07685.jpg

Munchies! My momma turtle, Jessie.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v431/buslady/Animals/DSC00762.jpg

That is the cutest thing ever. :love: Steve and Raphie are adorable.

Awwwww! So cute! One of my granddaughters has a red-eared slider that was given to her by a family that was moving. I am surprised that the poor little guy wasn't absolutely mad. He had been living in a container the size of a shoebox with a little water in the bottom.

Now he (they thought he was a girl - named him Janet and I saw he was a male. Now he is named Jared) has a very large, well huge in fact, plastic sweater container to live in with rocks, artificial plants (he eats the live ones) one floating log and one that is attached to the side. He can swim and when you come in to see him he is all over the sides scratching to get up at you.

My daughter feeds him turtle sticks and fresh foods and has been treating his shell with some sort of cream for the problem. His shell had been looking pretty awful. I think he had all sorts of nutritional deficiencies. He has a UV light to bask under but when it warms up they will put him outside for a while to soak up some rays.

I told my granddaughter when she first got him to give him to the Virginia Living Museum here but she is very attached to him and doesn't want to give him up.

I've always wanted to keep turtles! I almost did... but then i found out it was against the law where i live!!!

:upset:

My granddaughter has turned out to be a turtle nut. She just loves them. Two weeks ago I took her and her older brother to the park for a picnic. They went down to the dock to feed the ducks but ended up watching a very very large turtle that was swimming out from and under the dock. She was so excited. According to them, it was as big as a meat platter.

We decided to go to a pond to see if any turtles were sunning on the logs but only one was out. I think it was too hot. It was 97 degrees F. and perhaps it was a little toasty even for the turtles.

We tried the pond in the Yorktown battlefield but the turtles there were nowhere to be seen and there are loads of turtles in the pond. However, there was a pair of white swans with eight cygnets. The babies were just about as large as their parents but still gray and fluffy.

My granddaughter was worried that the swans ate all the turtles in the pond, but I don't think that was the case. After all it was so hot that all the swans were resting in a heap by the side of the road. I drove up and stopped right beside them and they didn't even move. It was probably too hot for them also.

I'd love to get her another red-eared slider but I think I would have to go down to a lake and catch one. I think it might be illegal to sell them. I'm not sure.

We had two baby red-ears that were dropped by seagulls that had caught them up at this lake. We kept them for years in an outdoor pond and they lived the life of Riley. When they became large enough to escape they disappeared. I think they made their way to a small lake in our neighborhood that leads to a river (across from our house).

We kept two box turtles in our back garden for years. A male and a female named Philip and Elizabeth. They would dig themselves down into the loamy earth of the vegetable garden when they hibernated. They were really great for eating bad bugs and slugs. One year they went away, never to return.

That's so cute!

I have one turtle who I called Little Green. He eats raw pork all the time. He really cute and i'm still not sure what type of turtle he is. i'll give everyone a picture. Sry...it's a little too big...

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i28/jewelary_2006/IMG_2859.jpg

It's a red-eared slider. Do you know it is a male? Their vent is closer to the end of their tale than that of female so it is easier to mate.

My turtle died and i'm really sad. :upset:
Anyways. It was a red-eared slider like wickedwitch's.
I MISS IT SOOO MUCH!

We just got a box turtle yesterday. A guy my dad works with was walking through the woods and found a bunch of eggs. He picked one up, and it hatched in his hand. He brought it to work, and my dad brought it home. We named it Nessie (if you've read the Twilight series, you'll know were that's from), and she is so cute. My best friend has had turtles before, and she's given us some advice. I may post a picture later.

We never actually kept turtles as pets, but whenever it rains turtles are over-abundent in our yard. We mostly have snapper turtles. (Not sure if that's what they are actually called, but that's what we know them as.) I'm actually afraid of turtles though.

We never actually kept turtles as pets, but whenever it rains turtles are over-abundent in our yard. We mostly have snapper turtles. (Not sure if that's what they are actually called, but that's what we know them as.) I'm actually afraid of turtles though.

Why are you afraid ? They're so gentle? :hmm:

We have two red ear slider turtles too. My sister had Monster since he was a little-weenie baby. He's grown now, and she's moved the pond into out front yard. He comes up whenever you call him. We have aanother, its a male too and it was a baby. It was my brother-in-law's nephew's who ccouldn't take care of it, so they brought it to us. Its gotten bigger than Monster! They're great though! :love:

Gipro2003, if you really have snapping turtles in your backyard, avoid them at all costs. We have a river across the road and many lakes in this area of Virgina. One day a snapping turtle showing up at the house next door and it was huge and if it had bitten anyone it would have taken off a hand or part of an arm. What jaws!

Get a book on turtles and see what you really have in your back yard. Box turtles are gentle and good to have around as they eat slugs and bad bugs in your garden.

Turtles are the BEST pet ever. (Well, besides cats of course. But my dad doesn't think too much about cats, so we don't have cats. My dad is SUCH a dog lover. :grumble:) They're so gentle, wise, and I swear, they understand exactly what you're saying! I used to have three of them, and I gave them names and everything. In fact, when I was six, I wrote a story with my turtles as the protoganists. Sadly, we had to give them away when I was 12. But they still hold a huge place in my heart :)

I would love to have a turtle as a pet :) Does anyone know how much they generally cost?

They're cheap, about $5. But you gotta keep them on a diet of vegetables. MY pampered pets eat $20 worth of pet food. EVERY WEEK! Anything else, they'll give you a blank stare.

Wow, i have some reptiles, but like i said already, i can't have one where i live... :( But i do have other reptiles, so that's cool :D

I've decided that I'm going to get a turtle :D Now I just have to find a pet shop that has them :hmm:

NO they're not cheap pets.
Sure the animal costs very little...but you gotta house them properly, which means with a red ear - as adult female needs a 150 gallon tank, the biggest canister filter rated 2x the size of the tank, they need a basking spot, expensive UVB/heat bulbs...i do not reccomend keeping aquatics for beginners, they are a pain in the butt.

If you want something, look for a russian tortoise...easy easy. house one in a 50gallon rubbermaid storage tub, a mix of play sand and coconut compress, a water dish big enough to soak and a hide or a pile of hay for them to hide in. feed veggies, but no cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, spinach. easiest species to take care of.
But do not buy from a "pet store", buy from reptile store. Most pet stores hire idiots who know nothing about the animal or they're out to make a buck.
Try to find captive bred because they're used to captive environments. wild caught have been abused, are sick, parasite infested and will cost you a lot in vet bills.

To update my collection
I have just my 2 babies now, (the parents and teens were adopted out)
a spotted turtle, a reeves turtle and one redfoot tortoise.

I love turtles! I caught a baby one a couple years ago and now it's HUGE! But they stink! I don't know how to get rid of the smell either.

I had to overwinter the red eared slider turtles, that we use to have in the backyard, in our house and I don't remember any odor. You have to clean out their habitat often to remove feces, etc. and any uneaten food. That's just common sense.

If humans didn't bathe often and use deodorant we would emit a horrible stench. I don't know how people made it through the middle ages. Maybe their noses became petrified. The ancient Romans thought they were better than other peoples because they didn't smell, they took baths.

I love turtles! I caught a baby one a couple years ago and now it's HUGE! But they stink! I don't know how to get rid of the smell either.



Properly house them.

I have no stink other than the tub water after a 2 week vacation....my tort and woods turtles are in a unfiltered turtle tub and man it stunk when i got home.

i change it normally each week, it dont stink.

filter the water, give the turtle a large tank...more water less stink. my 120 gallon i used to have housed 4 red ears, it was filtered with a cansiter filter..a big one rated 2x the size of the tank, and it never smelled

Among quite a few animal family members in my household, I have 2 turtle darlings!

First is Hercules, he is a red belly. My better half and I purchased him when he was 3 days old. He was the cutest thing, and so adventurous and strong! He obviously felt he had to live up to his name! :) He is now 20mos.

Our second turtle, we rescued from the sister-in-law. She is a red-eared slider. Originally, her name was Pegasus because we were under the impression she was a male. We soon learned our Pegasus would be our Pegasina. :) She is 34mos.

Reptiles and turtles are awesome! Can't wait to get one.

They are brilliant creatures!