Other Turtle Discussion

I found Clyde buried under some wet leaves in my yard on a cold wet November day, far away from any water or any suitable turtle habitat.

When I first saw Franklin, he was beating up his siblings. I was just like, "Yep. There's my turtle."

AmberEve wrote:My bf throws parties. His last party was successful. He'd been nagging me to get a dog for a straight month. I didn't want a pet. I'm allergic to furry things. He is extremely compulsive. He used to have a spider so we had a 40 gal tank, heaters, thermometers, and a little food dish. So he talked me into getting a turtle. We went to Pets Mart and there were two red-eared sliders and an African side-neck turtle in this little glass enclosure with a pre-formed pond. The employee showed us both turtles. One pulled it's head in, while Morla kept hers out and was very curious. I picked her. =)
We brought her home in a little box with holes in it (I still use it to bring them outside but Morla can now climb out of it when I set it down). We first thought she was a boy and named her Captain Spaulding (my bf loves evil clowns and House of 1000 Corpses is one of my favorite movies ). After doing research I found out she was probably a girl. She is a little character. She would follow our finger and this feather I have through the glass. Everytime I picked her up she'd try to bite me and hiss, sometimes so much she almost bit her own arm. I would leave her alone for a couple days then try again. I was discouraged because I thought she didn't like me. She seemed nicer to me after I figured out she was a girl and started calling her a girl instead of a boy. I had to find a cool girl turtle name. One of my favorite movies when I was a little girl was The Never Ending Story. I thought of the scene where they were in the Swamp of Sorrows and the climbed on that big turtle to ask it a question. I couldn't remember the turtles name so I asked my friend Google. It said the turtles name was Morla, The Ancient one. So that's how she got her name! =)

Well now we needed a Captain Spaulding. So my bf and I discussed getting a male turtle and possibly breeding them down the line. He wants a turtle pond in the backyard we don't have yet. Pets Mart only had that poor African side-necked turtle left (nobody wants him =( ) So I went over to Petco and they had a bunch of RES in a tank with a rock structure that was partially under water in the fish section. I watched them for awhile and looked at their nails. There had to be at least 10 turtles in didn't look to be that big of a tank. Most of them were stacked ontop of each other. Some were asleep in the corner. I wanted to make sure I was getting a male so I asked the gentleman at the front. He called someone over and it took awhile. The lady that helped me was this very robusk, short haired, older woman that didn't look very happy to be there. I asked her if they had any boy turtles. She told me."We're not allowed to sex the turtles." O.O I pointed to one with longer claws and said, "There, that one looks like a boy." She was asking me questions and every question seemed like she was discouraging me from buying a turtle. LOL I told her I'd be back later that day with my bf. After my bf got out of school we went and watched them for awhile. He suggested this darker looking one. I saw Captain Spaulding who was a pretty light green and said, "No I want that one. He matches Morla." We had different employee help us. I pointed to Captain Spaulding and said,"Is that a boy?" (I figured maybe the right question would get me the answer I needed) He picked Spaulding up, pulled back his tail, looked and said, "yep." So we took him home in the same little cardboard box they used for Morla (only it said Petco on it)

When we brought them home and introduced them, Morla went up to him and started that little fanning thing they do with their front claws. I thought they were mating already! YAY! LOL I later found out that a. they are too young to mate and b. that was Morla telling him who's boss! He's a very mellow turtle. He reminds me of Crush from Finding Nemo. Right off the bat we were able to handle without him getting stressed. He just pulls his limbs in his shell and looks around.

Now Morla loves me. I take them outside and she comes over to me. She'll climb on me and over me. Spaulding will run away from you instead of coming to you when you come near him if he's not just chillin' in the grass. Morla is the more dominant turtle. She's always pushing Captain Spaulding out of the way. He'll be sleeping and she'll just plow right into him. Morla is always up on the turtle dock all spread out, Captain Spaulding just sits at the edge of the ramp with this head out watching her. They're so cute and fun to watch. =) I never knew I'd be this into turtles.

Well that is wild, I have a turtle named Captain Spaulding :shock:

hahaha I didnt think there was any other turtle with that name!!

Shelby (my small female) was hiding in her shell on the way home.
Dexter (my full grown male) was climbing out of the box and hissing.

I was fishing in a lake with my feet dangling in the water when this small little turtle swam right up to me and got on my foot. He let me pick him up and everything. I decided to give him a quick name and take him home. I called him Mr. Turtle and went to get Mr. Turtle a 170$ tank, a floating dock and some riverbed sand. A week later I was swimming the same lake when another turtle came up to me..He was just a little bigger than Mr. Turtle. I took him home and Mr. Turtle and Jacob got along pretty well.

Awesome stories people
I remember the day I bought my turtles I was 6 and since I was 3 I went to the same pet store with ALOT of turtles so I begged my dad he said no until my grandma visited and bought me Jamie and Johnny I was tapping on the glass bad actions eh? Those two turtles were SPLASHING like they were drowning or something and all the other turtles just fell in the water as those two jumped off about a 8 turtle stack since then I've kept them happy in I believe a 20 gallon tank their still small as I'm only 10 but they never grow now I don't know why but now their living happy and healthy and in two years it's gonna be their 5th birthday!

My Mom and her fiancé came to visit in their RV from Az and said, "We have a surprise for the kids". I said "It's not a puppy is it?" She said "No, but they have four legs." They handed us a cricket container with 2 of the cutest 1.5" red ear sliders we'd ever seen. I was more than a little surprised to be receiving 2 baby turtles but after careful research and a decently hefty personal and financial investment, we now have 2 happy turtles and 2 happy kids. Mom kind of loves those little guys too.

That is a surprise I would love! Glad it worked out. You may of never known the joys of owning turtles without the surprise.

My son was 8 (now 14) and was outside exploring with his friends in the creek behind our old townhouse. We had just had a bad storm and tornado rip thru our townhouse complex and there was a group of cracked turtle eggs along with four dead baby turtles. They had been slammed across the bank and died. My son was so sad, he and a friend were digging a little grave for them when suddenly another baby came out from under them and was unharmed. My son ran into the house and asked if he could help 'her'.

I'd never owned a turtle and had no clue what to do so I got a shoe box and we brought him inside. Normally, we would call a friend who rescues wild animals, as we had done with some ducklings and rabbits, but this little one was so cute I thought we'd try to keep him. That's when I found this site, began reading everything I could (including that 'Missy' was actually 'Larry') and the rest is history! I still can't thank you guys enough for being so informative and helpful... It gave us the best experience and ensured Larry was well cared for.

Six years later he's the baby of the house and Larry's picture is in my office beside the rest of my family. :mrgreen:

Slowski was the only active hatchling swimming in a 10 gallon tank at a local pet store, stuck with lots of other sleepy turtles. Now she is a healthy 4 inch turtle in her 50 gallon tank.

(I know this post is old, just wanted to share) Lily was the healthiest turtle at the store, which was hard to believe. She was happily basking, neck stretched out far.

1 RES - Yertle (March 31, 2010)

Yertle has quite the interesting story:

A couple of mutual friends Aslan and his wife Tanesha, came down to Maryland to visit my boyfriend and his mother, and my boyfriend and Aslan went down to the grocery store to pick up sodas and a guy was selling baby turtles (less than 4 inches) for $10 outside of the grocery store . Just for a laugh Aslan bought one to give Tanesha. When they brought her home, they were all sitting on the back porch, and Aslan took the turtle out,put her on the table in front of Tanesha and said to Tanesha "I bought you a turtle". Then the turtle turned around and looked at my boyfriend's mother and marched right across to her. Tanesha said to her. "I think that's YOUR turtle." My boyfriend's mother named her Yertle, and she took care of her, but she really wasn't into having a turtle. When I moved in a year later, I totally fell in love with her, and she gave her to me. And I've been her mommy ever since. She's really taken to me and she lets me rub her head and his chin, and she even lets my boyfriend rub her head as well.

Last edited by sms15 on Tue Sep 30, 2014 2:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.

When I saw Ilsa by the first time she was swimming in her small old tank (not even a 1 gallon tank) with her eyes closed because of an infection. When I saw by the first time Elvis he was in the front crystal of the turtles tank in the pet shop, he was the biggest turtle there so that took my attention. When I saw by the first time Sam and Jim was a week ago, they were in their small tank (20 liters), they looked like they were suffering a lot, hungry and a little thin. Now they are in a bigger tank (40 liters) till I prepare their pond.

Tenodera wrote:What was your turtle doing when you were seeing him/her for the first time? and how did he/she come home?

Looking around with curiosity. Came home on the train.

First time I saw my painted turtle (Iggy) was when my niece and nephews brought him to my wife, they found him , put him in a plastic container and showed him to my wife, cause they new she liked turtles. He was only about the size of a 50 cent piece at the time. We decided to keep him, might have been the ... well probably wasn't the smartest thing to do. At the time , I had no idea what it took to keep a turtle, or how long they'd live, or anything like that. I've had him for at least 15 years now.

My wife decided he was lonely after a couple years of having just the one... so we found a place that sold turtles ( not as pets mind you, because it'd be illegal to sell one this size. They looked so darn cute swimming around in the tank. We found a cute little yellow belly slider, probably not much bigger then a quarter at the time. We' had him(or her) for probably 13 years now. (Rocky) I think it's a female, but I'm not 100% sure.

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