General Care Discussion :: Help Identifying Rescued Turtle!

Taking care of your turtle's overall health.

Post Posted: Tue Nov 29, 2016 5:54 pm   Help Identifying Rescued Turtle!

Hey guys, so I recently wrote a post about rescuing a wild turtle that in ended up stuck in a relative's dirty swimming pool.

Original post here: http://www.redearslider.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=38560

Well, with some patience and a semi-decent pool net, I was able to finally catch him!
I plan on releasing him back to the pond where I think he came from in their neighborhood, but first I wanted to make sure if "he" is alright. I took some pictures of his shell and I'm not sure if he is a slider or another species. Any help on this would be greatly appreciated, as well as his sex and maybe age? His shell is exactly 9 inches long, front to back, and he is SUCH a beautiful turtle. He's living right now in a rubbermaid tub on my back porch until I release him. I wiped off the sludge that was covering the top of his shell and he seems to have a lot of old pitting and scars, maybe from previous shell rot?

His shell has algae that doesn't come off, even when I gently try to pick it off with my nail. Is this bad?

So basically, if anyone would be so kind as to identify species, sex, maybe age, and whether his shell is in okay enough shape to release him or if I should contact a rescue for further help, that would be AMAZING. I have to fight my turtle-loving urges to keep him because I just don't have the space right now. Also, even though he's not a super aggressive turtle and he seems to have a good demeanor (possible out of fright lol), his shell looks like it shows that he WAS wild, so it would be best to put him back and not keep him for selfish reasons... What a cutey though :oops:

PICTURES BELOW! THANKS!

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IN WATER:

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BONUS PIC of Rio, my yellow-belly, ready for the holidays!!! :D

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Jen1004
 
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Post Posted: Wed Nov 30, 2016 2:46 am   Re: Help Identifying Rescued Turtle!

Looks like a melanistic male slider, though a shot of the tail will confirm gender. Not sure how old, though I would put it in a 7-10 year range. Further cleaning is up to you, but you will have to be a bit more aggressive and he won't like it.

Since the turtle is melanistic, the patterns are hard to make out but I think he is in the Trachemys family. His size and not having any markings on the plastron make me want to rule him out of being a RES though, but I'm not100% certain. Maybe a cooter or some sort of hybrid?
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steve
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Post Posted: Wed Nov 30, 2016 11:53 am   Re: Help Identifying Rescued Turtle!

Thanks, Steve, yes, I was thinking the same about him being a hybrid of some sort. I figure since he is going back to a pond with more algae in it, traumatizing him by trying to scrape off every last bit of it would do more harm than good, so I'll go ahead and release him today. Sad to see him go
Jen1004
 
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Post Posted: Wed Nov 30, 2016 3:06 pm   Re: Help Identifying Rescued Turtle!

You can always bring some treats when you pay him a visit :)
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steve
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Post Posted: Thu Dec 01, 2016 1:55 pm   Re: Help Identifying Rescued Turtle!

So true :)
Jen1004
 
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Post Posted: Thu Dec 01, 2016 5:13 pm   Re: Help Identifying Rescued Turtle!

You finally got him out! Amazing! - Hope he lives many more years and your yellow belly looks very nice!
1x 3in RES (Beifong)
1x 2in RES (Katara)
Inspired by Avatar, but their character fits so perfectly!
iEzTech
 
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Post Posted: Fri Dec 02, 2016 2:49 pm   Re: Help Identifying Rescued Turtle!

Thank you very much! Yes! So happy he is out of that icky pool and free! :)
Jen1004
 
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