Other Turtle Discussion :: How you got your turtle.

[PinkyTurtle]

As I surfing the web for turtle supply gear I was thinking how thankful I was for Alphonse. That my boyfriend suprised me with him for x-mas. So I was thinking we could all share stories on how we got our respective turtles. Also how long you have had them and such. I can't wait to hear everyones stories.

[N4784N R4613]

I had wanted a turtle ever since I was nine. But Dad and Mom never had enough money to get a tank. Four years later my uncle gives us his 29 gallon long fish tank. We tried fish for half a year, but I never had any success.

So I asked my Mom if I could get a turtle for the tank. It took a while, but eventually we took off for the pet store to learn about turtles(big mistake, I should have done some online research first), and what kind we wanted. We decided on a RES, because, well, all the box, and land turtles just looked boring.

So we asked the guy what we need to get to set-up out fish tank for RES. I figured those cute little babys would only get a little bigger, and then would be able to stay in that tank for the rest of his/her life(this idea was backed up by the pet store guy).

So I got all the stuff the pet store guy said I needed, and headed home to set the tank up. I went back the next day to pick up a RES, and get some final instruction. That is when the guy said I should get two, because one will get lonely!! I listened and got two RES!!!

I followed the pet store's instructions to a tee. I lost both within a week, and went back to ask what had happened? They came up with some long story, and I went home with a new light and two more turtle's. Same thing happened, but this time I went online, and found this site.

It turns out that all I had over the basking area was a UVA heat bulb, the pet store told me to set the UVB tube light on a screen lid over the water!! So, I feel responsible for four poor little baby res, who where starved to death because they didn't have proper lighting, so they couldn't digest the pellets. I will never listened to some bum who just wants to make a sale again.

This is when I got Tank and Diesel!! With the proper set-up and lighting, they have been with me for over 8 mouths, and are growing like weeds!! And come next fall, I am planing on buying the biggest indoor aquarium on these forums!! The size of the tank is only limited by space in my house, and how much money I can make in spring, summer, and fall.


I love my RES,

Nathan Radle.

[Evelyn]

My mother bought me and my brother a small turtle when we kids, that was my first turltle. Our dog killed the turtle. Years later my mother bought my children two baby turtles. They got big, about five years old, I started to have health problems with them. At that time there no vets to help me and only a few books to read, I even called a couple of zoos for help, they thought I was crazy. Well the turtle passed away. 15 years ago I saw the cute little baby redears in the pet shop and bought two. I still have them. I bought another turtle maybe 5 years ago. I did not know what kind of turtle it was but I just fell in love with the cute little turtle, so how I have 3. I am really to old for this stuff but I do like the turtles.
I was lucky to keep them a live this long with only one small book to read.
Evelyn

[jenaero]

I never had turtles growing up. I always had an interest in reptiles tho. My parents allowed me to 'experiment' with small lizards and frogs. I was only about 12 so I trusted what the pet store people told me...none of them lived nearly as long as they would have had I known better.

A bit more than 2 years ago I wandered into a pet store to look around. They had a 5gal tank with about 10 res on the counter. I immediately knew I'd go home with at least 2 of them. I picked them up the following day along with a completely inadequate setup. I hopped online when I got home and found that I had some shopping to do. I set them up properly and I can't be happier with them.

I pretty much got all my pets at the store, but for everything after the res I did my research well in advance.

[Turtle addict]

How I got all of mine is a looong story but here goes...
1 Squirt the first one was gotten 4 years ago for my son from a flea market. All they had were res and my dad bought this teeny tiny one plus a 1 gallon fish bowl! I had no idea what I was into! We soon bought a 10 gallon {not much better} but it had more room. We were feeding alot of meats like hotdogs and lunch meat.

2 second one Crunch came when the other half saw him in the middle of the road in four lanes of traffic trying to cross, he stopped and caught him and since he was bleeding he brought him home, I had no idea what it was, just that it had webbed feet so I put it in water and got on the internet, come to find out I had a cooter, and I was all wrong about the care of the res. Alot of adjustments and we were on our way to healthy ones. After a septic turtle kept my on-line finding out what to do I fell in love.
3rd was my sulcata, Toy, I knew I wanted a tort this time and knew what suclata were just not that spurthighs were the same thing. We went to local stores and I figured with on-line support I could find the care for the cheaper spur thigh tort. We did discuss the sulcata on the way home and how big they get, and that we had enough room for them but the spur thighs were cheaper. Once home it took about 5 minutes to figure out sulcata and spur thigh are the same thing.
4 &5 Jackie and Chloe came from my brother in law who had a ybs and a res together and they got to big to care for so he passed them to me.
6 The miss map Timmy was a christmas gift from the other half.
7 & 8 Beamer and Bentley two more res came from a friend on-line that was having a baby and needed to pass on a few.
9 camo, another res came from a girl who lost interest fast that I watched.
10 Harley the ornate wood I saw the year before when I was looking for a tort, almost got her but she was still at the store a year later and after running into her again she came home.
11 Tc the western painted I won at a turtle club meeting in a raffle.
12 &13 Onyx the common musk and Lexus the res came when their owner after 10 years didn't want them any longer. Lexus has since passed on from not growing in 10 years due to that da** turtle lotion being used. She was only 3 inches at 10 years old!~
14- Spazz another res came when my stepdaughter bought her for a friend and the mom said no.
15- Storm the melanistic slider came when animal control raided a house and removed him from a freezing basment in Mass.
16 Tinker the striped mud was found right before a cold front came through, she had just hatched and would not have made it.
17 Vladameir the russian was a b-day gift, from a petstore.
18 & 19 Atlantis and Gemini two more res came when my son needed two the same size for a science fair project on how handleing a baby res affects them. Makes them sicker and not grow as well. He made state with this so far!!
20 &21 Kameko and Ryoshi both res came from someone on a forum who couldn't care for them any longer.
22 Midori the Japanese pond came from another b-day gift.
23 &24 the three toe boxes Honu and Kobi came from a close friend in Ill for my b-day gift
25 Jin, another japanese pond came since they do better in pairs and Midori wouldn't eat. The breeder friend gave me this one free.
26 & 27 slytha a res and Posiden the common musk baby came when a guy I know was shipped to Iraq and they needed a home.
28 &29 Nala and Thor both sulcata came from up North when the owners realized they would be better here instaed of a basment during the cold.
30 &31 Adriana and Ashur the black woods came as a Christmas gift.
32 Chip the malayan box was handed to me by a breeder friend sicne his shell was partly bitten and the friend knew I don't care about it and would still love him.
33 Isis the Florida red belly was also handed to me from a breeder friend, he had 6 already and knew I wanted a female. Some one had given her to him because she had gotten to big.
34 Rocky a sulcata was found by the Central Florida Zoo and has severe pyramiding. I got the call asking if I would take her and she's here now.
35 &36 Howard and Anna, both annams are not mine yet, they are part of a breeding program, and also a conservation program at the school. They are in my care alone right now and I have gotten attached so after the school year they will be bought and stay with me. Along with the runt Smudge who has been sick and spends more time here then at the school!

And that's the book! I tried to keep it short and not go through what everyoen had when I got them just how I got them!

[DaddySkittles]

[N4784N R4613]

Wow, where do you keep all of those turtles?!?!?! Your house must look like a zoo!! You got a true passion(or should I say problem? LOL JK) for turtles!! I don't know how you do it!!

[Turtle addict]

There are 35 here right now and 9 are outside all the time. 22 of them have tanks outside and inside. We move them every morning and night. These ones we move are tortoises, the boxies, and smaller then 5 inches and the weather is too cool right now at night to leave them out. It's not so bad, the inside tanks have filters and they only sleep there. The outside tanks have drain holes with plugs we can pull and hose out once a week then fill. The outside tort pens never or rarley need cleaning since they eat the poo. I just have a system for feeding, I have a cig every morning and throw greens and weeds for everyone, once a week fruit gets chopped and thrown in, once a week veggies go in, and once a week the ones that can have it get a seafood, chicken and liver mix. Takes about 15 minutes to feed everyone, 15 to move them all out, I use bins and carry several at a time. And maybe an hour a week to clean. It's not that bad!

[Starchick]

Our turtle story started with Over the Hedge, actually. Me and Michael went to see that movie, and he really liked the character Vern, and sort of got fixated on how cool it would be to have a pet turtle. I figured a turtle would be simple enough to get and take care of, so we did a little research into the different kinds and really only found the basics, a rough idea of what they eat, whether they're land or aquatic, and how big they get. We originally talked about getting a mud turtle, because of the kinds listed on some site we found, those would be the smallest. Then we started searching pet stores, and found only tortoises and large sliders. We spent a whole day driving to every pet store in the area and were pretty much told that no one sells turtles anymore. We decided to think about the slider, but on the way home I thought to call my friend's mom and ask where she got her turtles. She told me that they were class pets, and when the teacher retired, he had a drawing for them. Greg was the only one that brought back a permission slip so he wound up with both. So they had those turtles for 7 years. She mentioned that maybe since Greg was leaving for college he might not want them anymore, and we realized that we hadn't found many other good options. I asked my friend to find out if we could take one of the turtles, and they said yes! We got Napoleon, and he lived with us happily for about 2 months, then suddenly his shell changed color and he stopped eating. After a trip to the emergency clinic and a lot of online research, he improved, and I finally found this site, and realized how much we were doing wrong. We upgraded his whole setup, adding proper lighting, more space and water, a heater, better filtration, better diet...the whole nine yards. His RI came back a few months later, but he seems to have recovered fully now. In the middle of this, I stopped by my friend's house to pick some stuff up and caught a glance at Slowpoke. After getting used to Napoleon, it was shocking to me. He looked so huge in this little 10 gallon tank, with only a 40 watt bulb for light and heat, and about an inch of water in the bottom. So I started begging...I emailed Greg repeatedly, promising to give Slowpoke great care if they'd let me adopt him. I never heard back from Greg, not sure if he just couldn't make up his mind or if he was just too busy, but I brought it up again when his mother called and asked me to turtle-sit for two weeks. She called and convinced him to let me take Slowpoke! So he came home with me two nights ago. He's going to the vet tomorrow, then depending on what kind of treatment he needs he'll either stay with me for a while or go live with Michael right away. Mainly I just don't want to force Michael to have to give him shots. For as long as he's at my apartment he has to stay in the 10 gallon, but he at least has a better basking bulb and his water temperature is up in the 70's (I tried putting napoleon's heater in there last night, and it's definitely broken, it was set for 78 and heated the water to 85) and he's eating better. The rest will get added as I'm able to buy stuff.

[kneenuh]

I was working at an Emergency Animal Hospital in West LA, when someone brings in a bucket. A man up front had found a turtle on the sidewalk just down the block! I sat holding this turtle for about an hour while the doctor came and we tried to run our diagnostics (x-rays, physical exams, etc)....well she was spitting up blood, and had a crack in her carapace. Though our radiograph machine was not equiped to see if she had any fluid/blood in her lungs we decided to simply treat with antibiotics. The doctor looked around and asked who wants a turtle? Everyone takes a step back except me....so I said "sure! I guess I'll take it?" Thinking to myself...'how hard can it be?' pfft.

Through the entire healing of her shell she was in water! I'm amazed that it didn't get infected. Sure she had antibiotics, but those doses had finished two days after I brought her home......At the time I lived in LA I also had a pool, which I allowed april to swim in for 10 min, once a week. I think that the chlorine had a beneficial affect on her crack....I KNOW the chlorine is bad for her....hence the short duration she was allowed in, but she was so happy in that large body of water, and I couldn't afford a large aquarium, so she was in her rubbermaid all day long.

[pumpkinsherbet]

i'd wanted a turtle since i rescued one from becoming road kill back when i was 18. i barely missed running it over, turned the car around and took it home. i checked to make sure it was doing okay, fed it, then let it go. named it speedy gonzales b/c it moved through my room a good deal faster than i thought turtles could move. i lived out in the country at the time, so when i let it go it had a nice grassy spot next to a stream to run to.

fast forward about 10 years. my boyfriend and i have been living together, pet free, for about two years. we're in the works to get a new place. i'm at the flea market with my best friend and i see a lady selling turtles. lotsa turtles. i ask her how you take care of them, she says a little gravel, a bit of water, feed them everyday and they'll be good. i call my boyfriend and ask if it's okay to have a turtle, he says wait 'til we're done moving.

fast forward another two months, new year's eve, we're (mostly) settled in. i'm back at the flea market picking up the turtles. i take them home, put them in a storage container (about 24x14x8.5) with some gravel, fish plants, water and a warm lightbulb. i also had a heater but it didn't work (boo). they still seemed stressed, went all out for the digging. so i went online to find turtle advice and got the surprise of my life. the care sheet i'd gotten previously was so inadequate. :p

they've gone through two more habitats since, a 60 quart storage container w/ clamp lamp and hiding cave, which they stayed in for a couple of weeks before i got them the 20L tank, simply b/c the uvb light strip wouldn't fit on the storage container. the first habitat is used as a landing spot for when i clean out the tank. it's got a towel in it now, and it's where i put the embellishments to keep them out of the way during cleaning. i'm currently shopping for a bigger tank, and as soon as my bad luck with that runs out, i'll be replacing the towel with soil and a little mini-pool so their landing spot can be more on the natural side. habitat #2 is used for the partial water changes, it will be switched with habitat #1 as the landing spot once the turts get bigger.

i'm also a big fan of teenage mutant ninja turtles. i was 11-12 when they really started getting popular, and i thought they were just the coolest things. had two cats named after them - donnatello (she was a girl so i changed the spelling slightly) and michelangelo/mikey. my boyfriend had talked of wanting an aquarium. too many fish of mine have met with bad fates of being accidentally flushed down the drain. so he got his aquarium, it's just got turtles instead of fish. my turtles have a great deal more personality than fish.

[kikicool]

We live at the beach. The neighbor's little girls have adopted us because they love our dogs. (They started a fan club for them!) So we see each other at the beach all the time. One day, they came running up and told us there was a turtle in teh water. I ran down to see it. There, struggling in the waves, was an RES. I had HAD one in college (which eventually made its way to my mom's lab--elementary science, and someone stole it!), so I recognized it as a freshwater turtle. We took it out immediately. The girls' mom said they could keep it. I went to visit it the next day and she asked if I'd take it because it was too much work, after she had read up. I said sure. RAn out and bought all the necessary stuff. Came back, scooped him up and ran home. Named him Shmeigel.

I knew he had to see a vet, but it was too late that day, and I figured he'd had enough stress--maybe a little rest would do him good. He was dead the next AM. I woke my fiance and said "HE's DEAD!" and began crying. He immediately got out of bed, and got dressed. "Come on." He said, and we went to the pet store. I knew why. We didn't have the heart to tell the little girls who would come over and say "Can we see shmeigel?" I wanted to encourage them in their wildlife rescuing!

We got a new Shmeigel. We found out he was a she. We renamed her Lily. My fiance then surprised me with a friend for her. Herman. (Since then, he continues to surprise me with fish that he feels sorry for at the store. I told him he's not allowed in there anymore.) They get along famously. Cuddling while basking, cuddling in the water, and some fluttering from Herman, who gives up easily enough because she ain't interested.

I love them so!!!

[JNZBCBnLIL]

I had wanted one since I saw them in FL while I was getting ready to get on a cruise for my 19th birthday! To tell you the honest truth I only wanted one because I thought they were so cute and tiny and green! lol but i couldn't get one then! So a year went by and right after my 20th birthday my aunt took me to FL with my cousins and we all went to take a look at the hermits! (stinky lil things) lol so I had made up my mind that there was nothing good enough souvenir wise to bring home to Brandon and since we're both animal lovers I decided on a stinky crab!! As soon as we got to the store I saw them- all in a probably less then 50 gallon tall tank with one basking dock for a good 20 baby turtles and one basking lamp (so I only assume since they weren't taking care of their turtles properly in the first place it was NOT an MVB bulb) But understand when I first got him I had no idea what I was getting myself into and had no idea that the conditions they were in were even bad! I thought it was a pretty big tank for some tiny turtles! lol and the clerk at the store seemed to have no desire or atleast did not have the knowledge to tell me just how much work and money he was going to end up being! But I picked Leo out because I literally walked around that tank a dozen times trying to look them all over (keyword TRYING) and everywhere I went- there was this little guy like he didn't want me to get a good look at any of them but him! I'm pretty sure I fell in love instantly! So the clerk put him in a little carrier case- that normally you would put a hermit in- with about 2 inches of water, some colorful gravel, and a sponge...?? We were in FL for a few more days after so I kept a good eye on him- he's never had a problem eatting- even during his days in that small container! So we were on our way home from FL and I had Leo in my lap because I had NO idea how to transport a turtle and my only idea was to keep him like he was and to cushion the bumps and turns and stops for him as much as i could! Well then I got a call from Brandon and he was beside himself because he had just run over a turtle ... and I couldn't tell him about Leo yet because he was sposed to be a surprise! So as soon as I got home I told him to look in the front seat- when he saw the little, tiny, green baby he fell just as instantly in love as I did! We had him in a 20 gallon set up with red and black gravel, a lily pad basking dock, and some red light the woman at petsmart had recommended to me! Then I found this site and changed it all up! New lights, docks, filters, heaters, thermometers, plants, feeder fish, etc! and have gradually been changing it up ever since! Brandon named him (of course) after one of the ninja turtles but he tells me mostly because it's his favorite artists name! so it kind of just fit! Now we argue over what his name will be if once he's big enough, we find out he's a girl- I say Lilo because it's cute and it's from a Disney movie (which we both love) and is easily interchangable from Leo to Lilo but he wants to name her Leona!! *eck* lol We'll just see what happens! Thing is- I got Leo for him as a souvenir so he has all the power...and believe me, he'll use it!! We've had Leo for 5 months now, 6 in March and he's been upgraded to a 75 gallon with tons and tons of plants- he loves to play and hide and sleep in them! I wouldn't give my little guy up for anything in the world!

[4Lancer4]

Everyone has such long stories about how they got them. My story begins when i was 12, I had a interest with reptiles and I finally convinced my mom to get me a turtle. We ended up with a hampster. I dont kno how but those petsmart guys are good at selling pets X_X. Anyways 4 years later, which brings me to about 8 months ago, our hampster, pasted away. We were really sad about his death, but he died of old age, so i knew i did my job right. 6 months past and i was walking around a mall and came across a petstore and saw them selling turtles. I asked my parents if it was okay to get one seeing as how I had taken care of a pet before. She said yes, but I didnt buy it until i was sure i could take care of it. 2 weeks later, i went back to that petstore and saw only 2 left. I asked what they were gonna do with those 2 since the store clerk was ready to take them to the back. They said they were gonna probably gonna give it to the animal shelter, so i convinced them to give them to me for FREE. With this being said, I paided well over $200 to that petstore for the equipment (Petstores got me again with their secretly robbing me!) So there i was with a fishtank, a turtle, and its stuff. I tried to get on the bus to go home, since i couldn't drive yet and nobody was home. Turns out turtles still qualified as pets and couldn't bring them on the bus. So i had to walk home at night with them. After an hour of walking I finally got home and set everything up. Thats pretty much how i got my RES's and im glad i took them from the store. I went back to the pet store the other day with my turtle and saw the petstore had new babies , relative to the size I got them for. I compared mine to them and realized how much it's grown. Thats the end of my story, hope you liked it!

Lesson of the story: Those petstore guys are really good at what they do and turtles have very high maintenence. =D

[HERSHEY]

we got our 2 res at the flea market where the lady told my daugther that they would not get bigger than her 6 year old palm. they were about the size of quarters. within 2 months they had doubled in size which made me think she was not telling us the truth, so i started researching first what we had and how big they would get. we have had them now 3 years they are both females one is almost 8inches the other is 7(i over fed them for the first 2 yrs as you can tell because of their size). we know alot more about them now love having them and are constantly trying to upgrade their home.